Sheldon Cooper: The Voyage Home (or How Sheldon Got His Groove Back)
by notjaneausten
Summary: After 45 days of riding the rails, Sheldon decides it's time to return home to Pasadena. He's made a decision that will not only affect his life; but of those around him as well. DISCLAIMER: The Big Bang Theory premise and all characters belong to Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady; Hail!
1. Chapter 1

**'I don't think Sheldon understands why he wants/needs to have Amy in his life; I just think he knows it's better to have her rather than not have her around' – Jim Parson's comments after Season Six.**

Forty-five days on a train gave a man a lot of time to think. For Sheldon it meant forty-five days of watching New York, Chicago and Atlanta roll past his window while he thought hard about the direction his life had taken him in. It had just been a lot to deal with in a short space of time; for Sheldon change was something that happened on a gradual scale; rather like his relationship with Amy – that had taken two years and a whole heap of courage before he had even admitted to himself that he wanted Amy to be more than a girl who happened to be a friend. Two more years passed before he'd worked up the courage to initiate a kiss; now they were up to snuggling next to each other on Date Nights and a soft kiss goodnight at the door. After being away from his friends (and Amy) for so long; Sheldon had made a decision, it was time to go home. He picked up the phone and cancelled his plans to visit his mother and meemaw in Galveston and changed his tickets online; booking a seat on the fastest train to get him back home.

He missed the stability that his life offered him; fixed routines helped to focus his mind on one task rather than have a million thoughts buzzing around his head at the same time. With Leonard and Penny getting engaged and wanting to move in together; his disillusionment with his chosen field of study and the destruction of the comic book store – these were all just miniscule bumps in the road when it came down to what really had him hitting the rails; it was the offer from Amy that she could become his room-mate that was the catalyst. The gradual deepening of his affect for the quirky neurobiologist had been occupying a corner of his mind for some time; and although one part of him wanted to jump in the air and accept her offer immediately, there was still that tiny nagging voice inside his head that told him he wasn't good enough for her. What if she moved in and started pressuring him to push the boundaries of their relationship even further? The thought that he might never be able to offer that to her sent him into full panic mode and he'd headed for the train station – hoping that a few weeks away would clear his mind.

Unfortunately not being able to see her every day, only made him miss her all the more. He missed his friends and his routine but most of all she was the one that he missed the most; his Amy. She had somehow managed to sneak under all of his shields and was like his own personal piece of Kryptonite; she'd managed to integrate herself so deeply into his life that it was hard for him not to picture her there. To Sheldon, it was like he'd been living his whole life in black and white; his living only bursting into colour when the threat of being exposed to a dirty sock changed his whole life forever…

_"__Who's going to tell whom about what?" Howard and Raj turned around like two guilty schoolboys being caught looking at porn sites as Sheldon entered the living room._

_"__Sheldon! Hi!"_

_"__Your surprise confuses me. I live here." Sheldon remarked as he crossed to the refrigerator to extract a bottle of apple juice. Raj nudged Howard away from the computer and prodded him in the arm to get him to explain what the two of them had been up to._

_"__Hey, listen what are you doing tomorrow afternoon?" Howard asked as he and Raj walked over to the breakfast bar. _

_"__Be more specific," Sheldon stated as he poured himself a glass of juice and watched as Howard nervously wrung his hands together. _

_"__Four-thirty." Sheldon turned around and explained that four thirty was in actual fact preevening, a time of day that he'd invented to better define the ambiguous period between afternoon and evening. _

_"__Well, tomorrow's Saturday. Saturday night is laundry night. So I'll be spending the preevening pre-sorting and pre-soaking." Raj and Howard exchanged a glance and then Howard stepped forward with an alternative suggestion._

_"__Okay, what if I were to tell you that tomorrow at four-thirty you could meet a woman who has been scientifically chosen to be your perfect mate?"_

_"__I would snort in derision and throw my arms in the air, exhausted by your constant tomfoolery." Sheldon stated as he stood holding his glass and glancing between the two men._

_"__But, it's true." Raj insisted and Sheldon did exactly what he said he would do; snorted in derision and waved his arms in the air. He crossed over to his desk and sat down, preparing to ignore everything else that would be spouted out of their inferior minds._

_"__We put all your vital information into this dating site, answered all the questions just like you would and they found a match for you." Raj explained and Sheldon once again snorted as he attempted to block out their conversation; choosing to pretend that they were mere figments of his imagination. "Her name is Amy Farrah Fowler."_

_"__Please." Sheldon snorted again as he brought up his current work onto his laptop, "Even assuming you could answer any question the way I would, the algorithms used by matchmaking sites are complete hokum."_

_"__That's exactly the answer we gave to the question – 'what is your attitude towards online dating?'." Howard excitedly informed him and Raj nodded in agreement._

_"__Howard wanted to write 'mumbo jumbo', but I said no. Our Sheldon would say 'hokum'." Sheldon frowned at their enthusiasm and turned back to his laptop, Howard tried one more pitch._

_"__Come on, where's your scientific curiosity?"_

_"__Most of it is being applied to unravelling secrets of the universe; while the rest of it is wondering why I'm having this conversation with you." Sheldon remarked in his usual manner, still looking at the data filling his screen._

_"__How about this? Even Spock had a date every seven years." Raj suggested and at his remark Sheldon turned around with a look of surprise on his face._

_"__He didn't date. It was Pon Farr. His blood boiled with mating lust." Sheldon stated slowly as if he were explaining things to a child; really had Raj even been paying attention to their Star Trek marathons at all?_

_Raj had one more ace up his sleeve and he wasn't afraid to use it. He nudged Howard out of the way and stood in front of Sheldon with his arms folded across his chest and presented him with the dirtiest trick in the book; one that he knew would get Sheldon to agree to practically anything._

_"__Sheldon…I've hidden the dirty sock from the roof somewhere in your apartment." Sheldon nearly fell off his chair at Raj's quiet statement and looked at the other man with a look of abject horror. "Unless you are willing to come with us to meet this girl; it will remain there…forever."_

_"__You're bluffing." Sheldon stated, please say that you're bluffing; he thought already imaging the germs infesting his meticulously hygienic apartment._

_"__Are you willing to risk it?" Raj asked, already knowing that Sheldon was near breaking point. _

_"__Curse you." Sheldon muttered as he stalked out of the living room to scrub his body with antibacterial soap and wondering whether he should stock up on disinfectant to douse the whole apartment in. _

_"__Did you really hide that dirty sock in Sheldon's apartment?" Howard muttered to Raj as they let themselves out of the apartment; Raj turned around to face Howard with a look recently shown by Sheldon._

_"__Dude! You really think I would soil these silky soft hands with someone else's dirty laundry?" Raj screwed up his nose in disgust and muttered something about having to book another manicure appointment._

_"__Good point, what was I thinking?" Howard replied sarcastically as they made their way down the stairs. _

_The next afternoon, or preevening as Sheldon had stated; the three men entered the designated meeting point, a coffee shop a short distance from his apartment building. _

_"__In a few minutes, when I gloat over the failure of this enterprise, how would you prefer I do it? The standard 'I told you so?' or would a simple 'neenah' suffice?" Sheldon asked as they walked further into the coffee shop._

_"__You don't know we're wrong yet." Raj insisted as he and Howard started looking around the shop for Sheldon's perfect match._

_"__I think we'll go for haughty derision…" Sheldon gave them both his best look, only to be interrupted by a voice coming from behind._

_"__Excuse me. I'm Amy Farrah Fowler. You're Sheldon Cooper." Sheldon turned around to see a small bespectacled brunette standing right behind him. She was dressed in a black and purple striped cardigan over a blue plaid shirt, and he could just see the neck line of a red undershirt from where the top button of her plaid shirt was undone at her throat. _

_"__Hello, Amy Farrah Fowler." Sheldon nodded politely as he prepared to make his intentions quite clear. "I'm sorry to inform you that you have been taken in by unsupported mathematics designed to prey on the gullible and the lonely. Additionally, I'm being blackmailed with a hidden dirty sock."_

_"__If that was slang, I'm unfamiliar with it. If it was literal, I share your aversion to soiled hosiery. In any case, I'm here because my mother and I have agreed that I will date at least once a year."_

_"__Interesting." Sheldon nodded, seemingly unaware that Raj and Howard were exchanging looks of amazement behind his back. "My mother and I have the same agreement about church."_

_"__I don't object to the concept of a deity, but I'm baffled by the notion of one that takes attendance."_

_"__Well, then you might want to avoid East Texas." Sheldon informed her, and Amy nodded in agreement._

_"__Noted. Now, before this goes any further, you should know that all forms of physical contact; up to and including coitus, are off the table." Amy prepared to make her leave, this was usually where her dates left her high and dry, and so was pleasantly surprised when she was instead faced with a very courteous offer from Sheldon._

_"__May I buy you a beverage?"_

_"__Tepid water, please."_

_"__Good God, what have we done?" Howard muttered as Sheldon led his prospective match over to the counter, of course Sheldon heard every word with his Vulcan hearing, but chose to pay attention instead to his new companion whose level of intellect was similar to his own. Here was a woman who had chosen to explore the intellectual blending of two minds making contact rather than focusing on her feelings – a fact that very nearly made her as much as a Vulcan as Sheldon had become over the years. _

**AN: So, I was planning on having each chapter with a little bit of Sheldon's inner thoughts on his journey home, followed by another classic SHAMY snippet. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter; I've already got the ultimate fluffy ending written out, it just depends on how many SHAMY scenes you guys would like to read...Please leave me a review or PM me to give me your thoughts, I can tell you that there will definitely be a scene from 'The Locomotive Manipulation' coming up in future chapters as I'm going to base Sheldon's changed feelings all on the reaction from that one kiss...**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I'd like to thank Kelli.K (10000000000 Shamy scenes - mmm good suggestion!), iheartshamy (yes, the cats will definitely get a mention), Stardust, Bella Duveen79, Kerrycec and kimbee73 for taking the time to leave a review. Thank you all, it is very much appreciated. The rough plan is to try and include as many as the major Shamy episodes as I can...let me know if it starts to get too boring and I'll post the last chapter!**

Sheldon realised that he'd been standing staring into the small bathroom mirror for nearly ten minutes, and hadn't even realised that the train had pulled into the station. He hurriedly shoved the rest of his belongings into the small suitcase that he'd picked up along the way and left the train to cross platforms. There was a slight delay in picking up his connecting train and although he abhorred sitting on outdoor furniture; Sheldon quickly became uncomfortable standing, he decided that having a few square inches of his buttocks pressed against a platform seat would be far preferable to having his whole back covered in germs from leaning against the wall. He sat down, carefully placing his suitcase between his knees and crossing his messenger back over his chest.

A buzz from his pocket informed him that he'd received a new e-mail message. He pulled his phone out and opened up the message; it was from Leonard informing him that he and Penny had spent the previous evening with Amy, and that the three of them had played a rousing game of Halo together before Penny proceeded to get drunk and Amy had stayed over. "Nothing new there, then." Sheldon murmured as he fired off a quick reply; saying that he hoped they'd all remembered to rehydrate properly and wishing them a pleasant day. The whole of their group always had a wonderful time whenever they were together and it seemed strange to think that it wasn't like that at the beginning. Sheldon remembered a time when Leonard had even asked him to stop inviting Amy over…

_"__Listen, can I talk to you about your girlfriend?" Leonard asked as he and Sheldon were walking up the stairs to their apartment after having a meal at the Cheesecake factory. Sheldon had invited Amy along to join them and she hadn't quite fit in with their group dynamic; firstly by bluntly telling Penny that she didn't appreciate the two of them being referred to as 'Shamy' and then by inferring that Howard wouldn't grasp the understanding of her work in neurobiology as Sheldon had reliably informed her that he only possessed a Master's degree and not a doctorate like the rest of the group._

_"__She's not my girlfriend." Sheldon sighed as he once again attempted to explain the dynamics of his relationship to Leonard. "She's a girl and she's my friend; but she is not my 'girlfriend'." Sheldon airquoted the emphasis on the word 'girlfriend'. "There's no touching, or unsanitary exchange of saliva."_

_"__Got it." Leonard nodded as they passed the second floor landing and went up the third floor staircase. "Anyway, I'm not sure she's the best fit for our little, how should we call it, Rebel Alliance."_

_"__Oh, I never identified with the Rebel Alliance." Sheldon exclaimed as they continued on their journey to the fourth floor. "Despite their tendency to build Death Stars, I've always been more of an Empire man."_

_"__Yeah, not my point."_

_"__I know what your point is. You're intimidated by Amy's intellect. To that, I say buck up."_

_"__Okay, let me get right to it." Leonard took a deep breath and just blurted it right out. "Amy is judgmental, sanctimonious and frankly, just obnoxious."_

_"__So?" Sheldon asked as he turned the key to open the apartment door._

_"__So, we already have you for all that." Leonard stated and Sheldon turned around to look at his room—mate with surprise. "Are you suggesting that I terminate my relationship with Amy?"_

_"__No, of course not. Just have your relationship someplace else."_

Sheldon's phone buzzed again with another incoming e-mail; this time from Penny thanking him for letting them use the apartment in his absence, she'd attached a photo taken from the night before. Leonard and Amy asleep on the couch; Amy was curled up in Sheldon's usual spot with Leonard flopped against her shoulder. Sheldon could see numerous empty bottles of the cheap wine Penny favoured, but he could also make out the distinct image of his favourite yellow mug clasped in Amy's fingers as she slept. Sheldon couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy over the way the two of them were curled up on the couch and it brought to mind another time when he'd practically accused Leonard of trying to steal Amy away from him.

_"__Here, I got you this to give to me." Amy said as she handed Leonard over a corsage made of small pink roses, the exact shade as the dress she was wearing. She'd asked Leonard to accompany her to a colleagues wedding instead of Sheldon, as he'd made a complete spectacle of himself at the last wedding they had attended together._

_"__Sweetie, guests don't usually wear corsages to a wedding; that's usually a prom thing." Penny whispered as Leonard tried to pop the lid off the plastic container._

_"__I didn't go to my prom. My Mother paid my cousin to take me but he spent the money on drugs instead."_

_"__Put the corsage on her!" Penny urged Leonard and he plucked the delicate spray out of the box and fumbled around trying to pin it to her shoulder._

_"__When you're done trying to cop a feel, it goes on my wrist." Amy informed him drolly and Sheldon completely ignored their interaction as he continued playing with his newly acquired HO gauge train set. It was a completely different matter when Amy and Leonard arrived back from the wedding reception with him leaning on her shoulder for support. Leonard had strained a groin muscle whilst attempting the Hokey Pokey and Amy had broken the head of the swan ice sculpture to press against his injury. Sheldon had come into the kitchen after Leonard had got home to find him in the kitchen making a cup of tea._

_"__How was your evening?" Sheldon asked politely, expecting to hear a dull as ditch water account of the whole tedious affair, his eyes narrowed in suspicion when Leonard gave him a smile instead._

_"__Not bad, I had a lot more fun with Amy that I thought I would."_

_"__What exactly do you mean by that?"_

_"__It turns out she really knows how to help a guy loosen up and have a good time. Although, truth be told, my groin's a little worse for wear." Sheldon saw red at that remark and dealt Leonard a swift judo chop to the shoulder,_

_"__Ow! Why'd you do that?" Leonard cried out as he rubbed his sore shoulder._

_"__To send a message. She is not for you."_

_"__What?"_

_"__Not. For. You." Sheldon wagged his finger as he slowly repeated his words and stormed off into his bedroom; leaving Leonard rubbing his shoulder and trying to make sense of the whole situation. _

Sheldon smirked a little as he forwarded Penny's e-mail onto Leonard's address and attached a brief message:

**Leonard; I believe I have mentioned this to you before, but in case it has slipped your memory; SHE IS NOT FOR YOU!... Bazinga, buddy! I hope you received my e-mail setting out my instructions for this evening; I hoped you remembered that this is top secret information and didn't let anything slip to Penny; I know what a blabbermouth your female can be once she's had a few glasses of vino…see you soon, Sheldon.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: For the purposes of this story, Sheldon and Amy have been in contact with each other every day; they are comfortable with expressing warm feelings through text and e-mail - it's only when face to face that they can't bring themselves to mention the 'L' word... This chapter is for iheartamy and anyone else that wanted those darned cats!**

The boarding announcement sounded then and Sheldon carefully tucked his phone back into his pocket and collected his belongings. He chose a quiet spot at the end of the train cart and looked up as a couple sat across the aisle. From the way the woman was sending sidelong glances at her companion, Sheldon guessed that they'd recently been through a spat or 'lover's quarrel' as Penny would have stated. He wondered whether the man's mother would intervene, as much as Leonard had called his own mother for an intervention when he and Amy had dissolved their Relationship Agreement. They'd started out slowly at first, exchanging daily e-mails and texts; they hadn't even had their first girl that is a friend but not 'girlfriend' date until four months after they had met in the coffee shop. Just a few short months later Amy had joined the guys for lunch one day and a simple discussion about their respective fields had swiftly turned into a heated argument. It was only when Sheldon realised that Amy really had meant what she had said about not contacting him again, that he started to slowly unravel from the seams. It had started out with one simple cat…

_"__Okay, we need to talk." Leonard stated as he walked into the apartment one evening to find that the single cat Sheldon had adopted had turned into six or seven. He bent down to remove one of them from his chair as Sheldon petted the tabby sitting in his own lap._

_"__About what?"_

_"__Cats, Sheldon! You're clearly upset about Amy being gone and you're trying to replace her with a bunch of cats."_

_"__Clowder." Sheldon corrected as he continued to pet the cat he'd named 'Zazzles'._

_"__What?"_

_"__A group of cats is a clowder or a glaring."_

_"__Okay, yeah…"_

_"__It's the kind of thing you ought to know, now that we have one." _

_"__Terrific. My point is, you need to face up to what you're feeling with this breakup." Leonard leant forward, clasping his hands together as he tried to make Sheldon understand his point. Sheldon carefully placed Zazzles to one side and rose to his feet._

_"__It wasn't a breakup. A breakup would imply that Amy was my girlfriend."_

_"__Okay, I got it. She's not your girlfriend! Now, listen to me. I know about loneliness. I know about trying to replace someone with other stuff." Leonard followed Sheldon into the kitchen where he noticed the numerous cans of premium cat food stacked on the breakfast bar. "You know what, fine! Have your cats, be like my Aunt Nancy. She had dozens of them, and you know what happened after she died? They ate her!"_

_"__You don't have to sell me on cats, Leonard. I'm already a fan." Leonard stalked off into his bedroom and without Sheldon knowing, placed a call to Mrs. Cooper informing her of the situation. She was on the next plane out of Texas. After seeing Sheldon in his bedroom surrounded by the dozens of cats now living with them, Mary Cooper set her plan in motion._

_"__Shelly, dinner's ready."_

_"__Okay."_

_"__No cats!" She added and could hear Sheldon murmuring his apologies to his feline companions as he closed his bedroom door. Sheldon came down the hallway and came to a halt as he saw an unexpected guest occupying the middle cushion on the couch._

_"__What is she doing here?"_

_"__I called her." Mary explained as she added the final ingredients to the salad bowl._

_"__Your mother thinks you might be losing your mind over me." Amy sat next to Leonard on the couch, hands placed over her knees and wearing yet another striped cardigan and plaid blouse combination. "As a neurobiologist, I was curious." _

_"__Well, rest assured, I am in full possession of my faculties." Sheldon assured her as he stepped down into the living room._

_"__Twenty-five cats!" Leonard muttered as he let out a fake sneeze; letting Amy know that in his opinion, Sheldon was definitely not in possession of all of his marbles._

_"__God bless you, dear." Mary said as she left the kitchen area and walked over to the living room. "Sheldon, sit down. Let's talk." Mary sat in the armchair and gestured for Sheldon to take his usual seat on the couch. _

_"__Alright, but you're not fooling me. Whenever you say 'let's talk', it means you want me to listen." Sheldon reluctantly agreed, perching on the very edge of the cushion and keeping himself angled away from Amy. _

_"__Now, the reason I called Amy over was to find out what type of person she is. And after chatting a bit, I have to say that while she is a perfectly unique young woman…you two are definitely not suited for each other." Mary hid a smile as she watched Sheldon absorb her statement and silently counted in her head how long it would take him to make his rebuttal – in less than six seconds, she had her answer. _

_"__That's a peculiar conclusion. By any standard, Amy is more similar to me than anyone I've ever met."_

_"__Oh, I'm sorry, Shelly, I can't see it." Mary made sure that she kept her voice neutral and kept her face averted from her son, so that he couldn't see her expression. _

_"__Well, whether you see it or not is irrelevant. I can't see subatomic particles, but nevertheless, they're there."_

_"__Excellent point." Amy interjected with a small smile. _

_"__A physics point." Sheldon remarked and Amy nodded with a small 'touché'. _

_"__Well, putting aside the pig Latin; it's a good thing you two decided to end the relationship, so I didn't have to end it for you." Mary sat back in the armchair and waited for Sheldon to make his move. Sure enough, her reverse psychology worked – she hadn't raised a genius child without picking up a few things along the way. _

_"__Amy, after consideration, I believe we may have acted rashly. I propose we resume our relationship and attempt to resolve our differences." Sheldon made his proposal and waited for Amy's counter proposal. _

_"__I'll agree to that, only if you stipulate that eighty per cent of our difficulties were caused by you."_

_"__I'll go as high as forty." Sheldon offered and waited for Amy's acceptance. _

_"__Sixty five." Amy countered and Sheldon swiftly accepted his defeat with all the grace of a southern gentleman._

_"__Done. You understand that by moving forward we deal with the fact that my mother does not approve of you?"_

_"__I do. I find being cast in the role of the bad girl oddly titillating." Amy missed the shocked look crossing Leonard's face and the slightly smug smile on Mary's._

_"__Would you like to see my cats?" Sheldon leant forward in excitement._

_"__I would!" The newly established girl-who-is-a-friend but not a girlfriend, and boy-who-is-a-friend but not a boyfriend then headed off towards Sheldon's room where they spent the rest of the evening in the company of his feline friends. The next day saw them offering them up to a good home; but instead of requesting twenty dollars for each cat, Sheldon actually gave out twenty dollars to anyone that would take them off his hands. Mary returned back home that very day, and reported to Meemaw that their Moon-Pie had found his ideal partner, even though he might not understand what that meant just yet._

Sheldon's phone buzzed across the table, bringing him out of his daydream and he picked it up to see that it was a text message from Amy:

**A: Had a great time with Leonard and Penny last night; whipped their combined asses with my Halo score. Whoo! Missing you and wish you were here, xxx**

Sheldon smiled as he read her message, he already knew that Leonard was pretty poor on some of the levels, but he was surprised that Amy had managed to beat both Penny and Leonard's scores. He composed a quick message back.

**S: I'm guessing that they spent more time exchanging saliva than concentrating on the game. Glad you beat them anyway…Missing you too, xxx **

Sheldon knew that Amy was extremely prompt when responding to her messages, and so wasn't a bit surprised when she returned his text with another of her own within a minute or so.

**A: The correct assumption would have been that they spent more time in the bedroom than on the game, but it would have been the same result anyway as Penny had already consumed most of a bottle of wine by that point. BTW: look at the attached photo and guess where I'm texting you from…xxx**

Sheldon opened the file and saw that it was a selfie of Amy taken from where she had spent the night in his apartment, and from the looks of things she had not only slept in his bed but had pilfered his wardrobe too! He smiled faintly as he noticed the t-shirt she was wearing…batman just like the one he was wearing at that very moment.

**S: Vixen! Although we are several hundred miles apart, it looks as though are thoughts are still very much linked together. I too am currently dressed in a shirt depicting Gotham's hero…Hope you washed the sheets…Bazinga!**

**A: Where were my kisses? Xxx**

**S: Oops, sorry! xxxx one extra just because I'm feeling generous, heading toward a tunnel shortly so I'll be out of range for a while. Call you later, xxx**

Sheldon had every intention of speaking with Amy that evening; but wanted it to be a surprise. If the trains were running according to their advertised schedule he would be arriving in Pasadena just after six o'clock that evening, and he had a little surprise planned for her, put together with a little help from his friends. He sent a quick message to Howard checking whether everything was organised and Howard responded that everything was fine, and that Amy didn't suspect a thing. A series of giggles from across the aisle had him glancing over and Sheldon saw that the couple had managed to resolve their earlier differences and were now clasping hands and exchanging quiet kisses. He heard a ringtone from further back in the train cart and the combination of seeing the couple across the aisle kiss along with the ringtone reminded him of when he first started noticing that Amy might not make a suitable Vulcan after all…

_"__You ever kiss a girl, Shelly?" Penny asked as she sipped her second Cosmopolitan of the night. She, Amy, Bernadette and Sheldon were having a night spent bashing Leonard's current girlfriend, Priya; who happened not only to be the sister of their friend Raj, but Sheldon's nemesis in the guise of a lawyer intent on destroying his precious room-mate agreement with Leonard. Sheldon wrinkled up his nose at the very personal question and took a sip of his own drink; a tall glass of milk with a straw. _

_"__Besides my mother, sister and Meemaw? No." Sheldon replied, "Although I did give mouth to mouth resuscitation to an elderly nun once. I received a Christmas card that year with far too many x's and o's on it." Amy took a large gulp of her drink and turned to face him._

_"__I'm available for experimentation." She closed her eyes and puckered up, opening one eye she saw that Sheldon was not willing to join in the fun. She turned to Penny instead. "Give me some sugar, bestie." She pressed a smacking kiss to Penny's lips and sent Bernadette into a stream of giggles. _

_"__You know what? We should go dancing!"_

_"__Yeah!"_

_"__I bet Sheldon could show us a few moves on the dance floor."_

_"__I'll have you know that I am proficient in the waltz, rumba and cha-cha."_

_"__Really Sheldon?"_

_"__You've tasted my sourdough bread, you know that I am proficient in many things."_

_"__Take us dancing, Sheldon!" Bernadette giggled as she found the gas lever that raised and lowered her barstool and watched Sheldon trying to weasel his way out of going to a club._

_"__Sheldon, as a gentleman raised in the South; what would your mother expect you to do when asked to accompany three lovely young ladies out for a night on the town?" Penny looked over at Sheldon and he knew when he was beaten. He soon found himself crammed in the back of a taxi cab hurtling through the streets of Los Angeles towards a ballroom dancing centre. He refused to dance with anyone else apart from Amy, and spent the rest of the night showing her exactly how proficient he was on the dance floor. As a gentleman he walked her to her door after their excursion, and helped her stand upright when she weaved a little down the hallway. He refused the offer of a nightcap but thought it would be rude of him to just leave her when she was so obviously inebriated. They sat down on her surprisingly comfortable couch and Amy leant in closer, until he could smell the faint tang of alcohol on her otherwise sweet breath. He suddenly found himself with his lips mashed up against hers, mere seconds passed before she pulled away._

_"__Fascinating." He stated quietly, thoughts buzzing around his head as he repeated the words Spock had immortalised in Star Trek whenever faced with a puzzle. He had to admit, he hadn't found the experience entirely distasteful, there was no saliva and her lips had been soft as they pressed against his own. He might have sought further experimentation but Amy had suddenly turned pale as she leapt from the couch and sped off down the hallway to rid her body of all the toxins that she had consumed that night. _

Sheldon smiled in fond remembrance of that crazy night, it might have been his first real kiss with a girl; but unfortunately Amy had consumed far too much alcohol that night to remember it. For him, it was the start of that downhill slide into the world of facing the fact that he wasn't as asexual as he had originally believed himself to be; it had just taken the arrival of one bewitching female to send his world spinning on it's axis. Something that only proceeded to get worse as time went on.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: And moving swiftly on...I know that you're all secretly wishing that I'd just hurry up and skip a few season so that we can get onto the good stuff...but there are still a lot of little Shamy moments to enjoy along the way... In this one Sheldon actually has a Skype conversation at last with Amy, but it does bring up some unfortunate memories - Pumpkin Latte, anyone?**

Sheldon looked over at the couple that had made up their differences and were now snuggling together sharing a set of headphones whilst watching a movie on a laptop that the man had pulled out of his backpack. Sheldon smiled a little as he remembered the first time that he and Amy had 'snuggled' on her couch one evening.

They'd had a friendship agreement in place for nearly a year when Amy had first indicated that she wanted more than friendship from Sheldon. Things came to a head when she realised that Penny and Bernadette had gone shopping for bridesmaid's dresses without her and had retreated into her apartment, refusing all methods of communication. Leonard had offered to drive Sheldon over to Glendale so that he could check up on her; and it was only a few moments later that she had made her bizarre request.

_"__Sheldon, I'm going to ask you something, and I'd like you to keep an open mind."_

_"__Always." Sheldon assured her as he turned sideways to face her directly on the couch._

_"__At this moment, I find myself craving human intimacy and physical contact." Amy said bluntly and Sheldon shifted back a few inches on the couch. _

_"__Oh, boy." He sighed and then turned back to face his friend. "You know ours is a relationship of the mind."_

_"__Proposal: One wild night of torrid lovemaking that soothes my soul and inflames my loins." Sheldon kept silent for a moment, struck dumb by her outrageous suggestion._

_"__Counterproposal: I will gently stroke your head and repeat, 'Aw, who's a good Amy?'"_

_"__How about this? French-kissing, Seven Minutes in Heaven, culminating in second base." Sheldon's eyes flickered, betraying his urge to flee as he made a further counterproposal._

_"__Neck massage…then you get me that beverage."_

_"__We cuddle. Final offer." _

_"__Very well." Sheldon conceded and they both awkwardly manoeuvred themselves into position on the couch. Sheldon propped in the corner with Amy snuggled against side, he wrapped one arm over her shoulder and felt her arm sneak around his waist. When Amy swung her legs up onto the couch to make herself more comfortable, Sheldon found himself wrapping his other arm around her shoulder and gently rubbing it up and down her arm in a soothing motion. Suddenly it didn't seem that strange at all, fairly comfortable actually…Until she called him 'Cuddles' in front of Leonard, and Sheldon suddenly realised that he was beginning to doubt that he'd ever achieve a higher plane of Kolinhar with his suddenly adolescent rise of hormones at the fact that she'd picked out a pet name for him; and he didn't mind it one bit, not that he was prepared to admit that to her. _

**A: Whatcha doing, Cuddles? Xxx**

The text message that pinged through on his phone once again had him thinking that he and Amy were having some sort of Vulcan mind meld. Why else would she have send him a text calling him 'Cuddles' just as he was thinking about their conversation in the parking lot when she was drunk? A day after their snuggle session on the couch, Amy had headed over to her local liquor store and had sat in the car park drinking wine straight out of the bottle. He and Leonard had headed over to take her home and she'd called him 'Cuddles' which made Leonard nearly have an asthma attack right there and then. He'd only gotten worse once Amy had asked him how much it would take for him to take her over to the nearest motel room and have his way with her. Sheldon smirked as he remembered telling Leonard that yes, she called him 'Cuddles' and yes, they had cuddled and to grow up. He sent a quick message back to Amy, knowing that she'd probably not receive it until she got to her lab. It was 8:45 and she usually started around 9:00.

**S: Cuddles…I was just thinking about that; and how you grinned at Leonard when you told him that he'd reached second base xxx**

**A: OMG! (Got that one from my bestie) I was just thinking about that too, especially when I woke up to find Leonard using me as his pillow this morning xxx**

**S: Hope you've been keeping my spot warm for me…and yes, I've seen the pictures xxx**

**A: Pictures! What pictures? Xxx**

**S: Skype me when you get to work xxx **

Sheldon grinned when he received an alert on his laptop just a few minutes later notifying him that Amy was calling. He slipped on his headphones and connected the call. He looked at Amy's familiar features and felt that all too familiar feeling bubbling in his stomach. He smiled broadly and gave her a tiny wave.

"Good morning, Sheldon."

"Morning, Amy. Is everyone looking after you all right? They promised me that they would include you in all of our scheduled activities." Sheldon was a little anxious that the group would have forgotten to include Amy on their regular takeout nights, although they talked everyday on the phone and exchanged frequent texts; they had kept their Skype sessions to a minimum after they realised that they both felt worse after seeing each other virtually 'face to face'.

"Sheldon, everyone's been great. I've had a few nice meals over at Howard and Bernadette's; but I've mainly been hanging out with Penny and Leonard. It's easier here, because it's somehow like you are just in the next room. A couple of times we've even ordered your tangerine chicken just so that we could pretend that you're eating with us." Amy's voice cracked a little, sadness evident in her tone. She quickly wiped away a stray tear before it could fall and looked behind her to make sure that she was alone in the lab; after all she had a reputation to maintain as a stern and aloof team leader.

"That's nice." Sheldon gave her the special smile reserved only for her, it was like his koala smile but this particular smile made his eyes sparkle with emotion.

"No it wasn't! Penny ate it!" Amy cried out in a louder tone, and then dropped her voice lower. "I ran out one night when it got too much and found myself at the old comic book store. It's been completely tore down now, Stuart's moved in to take care of Mrs Wolowitz; they invited me to join their Trivial Pursuit nights. Did you know that she calls him 'Stewie' and he calls her 'Debbie'? It somehow made me feel closer to you, nothing like our Counterfactual games of course, but it was just another way to pass the time."

"And how many of these evenings have been spent with Stuart and Mrs. Wolowitz?" Sheldon heard the jealous note creep into his tone and held a hand up to prevent her from replying. "Never mind, I shouldn't have asked. Forget I even mentioned it." Bringing Stuart into the conversation only reminded him of a time when he'd almost lost Amy for good.

"Aw, cuddles…" Amy grinned into the camera and Sheldon felt his own lips twitch in response. He tried to assume his familiar stern expression, but failed dismally when she only started giggling.

"Stop it, Amy." Sheldon warned, knowing that if she kept laughing he would start to laugh and that would have everyone looking over at him, and he really didn't want that. "Look, I just wanted to check in to make sure that everything was all right. I'm going to be heading home in a couple of days…"

"Sheldon! You're only telling me this now? Really?" Amy squealed with excitement and Sheldon winced at the high pitched noise echoed in his headphones, he looked over to see if anyone else had noticed and sure enough, there were a few stares wondering what the heck was going on.

"Just told my girlfriend that I'm heading home in a couple of days." He offered in explanation, and received a few nods back before people went back to their own business. "I've got to go, I'll check in with you later…Miss you, bye." Sheldon gave a little wave and his cheeks flushed as Amy blew him a kiss before severing their connection. He shook his head as he closed his laptop and sat back in his seat; he wished Amy hadn't mentioned spending time with Stuart. He knew that they were only friends now, but once upon a time things could have turned out a whole lot different.

After their cuddle session on Amy's couch, Sheldon had tried to keep his slowly changing feelings to himself. He wasn't ready to admit that he was thinking about moving their relationship forward. That was until Stuart, the owner of their once treasured comic book store had developed an interest in Amy and it was left to Leonard to run things past Sheldon for approval.

_"__Can I talk to you for a second?" Leonard called over to Sheldon, who was sitting at his desk catching up on his twitter account. _

_"__I know what this is about. Given the professional standstill you're at, you're wondering if this is the appropriate time to abandon your research and focus on teaching." Sheldon swung himself around in his chair to face his room-mate before giving a definite nod. "Yes. And if I may suggest, consider changing disciplines. Yeah, to the humanities. Perhaps, history. One of the advantages of teaching history is that you don't have to create things. You know, you just have to remember stuff that happened and then parrot it back. You could have fun with that." Sheldon assumed the conversation was over and turned back to his laptop._

_"__Yeah, that's not it." Leonard snapped back sarcastically from the kitchen, and decided just to go for broke instead of trying to break it gently, "Stuart's kinda interested in Amy."_

_"__Of course he is, she's very interesting." Sheldon remarked, turning back to update something in his notebook. "Do you know, when she was fourteen she severed the webbing between her own toes?"_

_"__No. Uh, He wanted me to find out whether you'd have a problem with him asking her out." That got Sheldon's attention and he left his laptop to swivel his chair around._

_"__Well, I'm not sure how to respond, Leonard. I mean, I don't own Amy. You can't own a person." Sheldon then proceeded to give Leonard a pop quiz on history and Leonard strode across the room to pick up his phone._

_"__You know what, I'm gonna tell him it's okay to ask her out." _

_"__The question is moot. There is no way that Stuart, an impoverished peddler of picture books, would be at all appealing to Amy Farrah Fowler, a noted neurobiologist capable of performing surgery on her own feet."_

_"__Fine, but for the record, I checked in with you to see how you'd feel about it." Leonard wanted to make it clear that he'd warned Sheldon in advance of Stuart's intentions._

_"__Fine. The record shall so reflect." Sheldon didn't know however that Stuart had contacted Amy as soon as he'd received the green light from Leonard and across the hall, Amy was arranging her first date with Stuart. A fact that didn't register with Sheldon until he and Leonard walked into the comic book store to see a pimple faced teenager manning the counter._

_"__Where's Stuart?" Sheldon asked, looking around the store for the sallow faced owner._

_"__Out, I'm Dale, he left me in charge." The teenager looked at the men in amazement. "Yeah, I don't get it either." When Leonard tried to get a refund on his latest expansion pack, Dale snickered a little as he explained that he didn't do returns as they were too hard, and he didn't know when Stuart would be back as he had gone out for coffee with a 'girl'. Leonard checked with Sheldon to see if he was okay and got a mouthful of spiel about winning a Nobel Prize and having cities named after him – so of course, he was okay. _

_A few days later Sheldon realised that he was definitely not okay; especially after the guys caught him friending Stuart on Facebook in order to keep tabs on how his dates were going with Amy._

_"__You're looking at Facebook to see how their date went!" Raj exclaimed as he worked out why the Sheldon that had always scorned the use of Facebook was now checking constantly for updates._

_"__Really? You think I care if a man, what, 'shared a pumpkin latte with a dynamite lady'?" Sheldon snorted as he read Stuart's latest posting._

_"__You are so full of it." Raj commented as he removed the stick holding his club sandwich together._

_"__You're free to believe whatever you like." Sheldon snapped back and clicked on the keyboard. "And unfriend Rajesh Koothrappali." _

_"__Sheldon, why don't you just acknowledge that you have feelings for Amy and you don't want her going out with other men?" Leonard suggested quietly, and there was a huff from Sheldon._

_"__And unfriend Leonard Hofstadter." Sheldon immediately proceeded to unfriend Howard when he suggested that he, Sheldon Cooper, challenge Stuart to a fight; the winner claiming Amy. _

_Sheldon made matters worse when he attempted to persuade Penny to go out on a date with him in an attempt to make Amy jealous; he'd offered dinner, a movie and a prize fight but Penny saw through the ruse immediately. _

_"__Playing games is not going to get Amy back." Penny stated as she looked directly at her friend, he must have been truly desperate to have come over to ask her out on a date with him._

_"__I am not trying to win her back." Sheldon immediately responded, and then after looking down at his fingers for a while, continued; "But out of curiosity, what is a way?"_

_Sheldon decided to make a stand, and that evening when he knew Stuart had invited Amy to the movies; he decided he simply had to see the same film. He made his way through the theatre until he saw Stuart and Amy sitting in the middle of a row. Despite the empty seats next to Stuart, Sheldon carried on moving down the row until he was seated in the empty spot next to Amy. _

_"__Sheldon, what are you doing here?" Amy whispered quietly once the previews had finished playing._

_"__The thought of you sitting in a darkened theatre with a character like Stuart is repellent." Sheldon looked past Amy, adding. "No offence, Stuart."_

_"__None taken." Stuart replied, and carried on watching the opening credits roll along the screen and trying to ignore the fact that his date was having a conversation with another man just a few seats away. "Although repellent is kind of a strong word."_

_"__I'm sorry this causes you discomfort but based on the currently established parameters of our relationship, I can put myself in any repellent situation I want."  
>"Um…Again…" Stuart chimed in only to be hushed by Sheldon.<em>

_"__Stuart, please, you're being rude." _

_"__Anything else?" Amy asked quietly, looking briefly over at Sheldon, whose attention seemed to be fixed on the big screen._

_"__I believe I would like to alter the paradigm of our relationship." Sheldon spoke softly and Amy glanced over before turning back to the screen herself._

_"__I'm listening."_

_"__With the understanding that nothing changes whatsoever, physical or otherwise; I would not object to us no longer characterizing you as 'not my girlfriend.'" Both Amy and Stuart looked at Sheldon who was determined not to look either of them directly in the eye. _

_"__Interesting. Now try it without the quadruple negative." Amy demanded softly, and Sheldon swallowed hard to try and dissolve the rock that had suddenly appeared in his throat. _

_"__You're being impossible." He snapped and watched as Amy turned and leant against Stuart's shoulder. _

_"__Hi, Stuart." She whispered and smiled into his eyes._

_"__Fine." Sheldon muttered, and Amy shifted back into her original position on the seat. "Amy – will you be my girlfriend?" He chanted as if he were a young boy back in a schoolyard. Stuart leant closer to see that Amy was now practically leaning against Sheldon's shoulder as he awaited her reply._

_"__Yes," She finally replied and Sheldon turned his head away so that she couldn't see his gleam of satisfaction._

_"__Well, that's enough of that. Sorry to interrupt." Sheldon got out of his seat, not able to take the romantic drivel playing on the screen any longer. "You two enjoy your date. Here's a dollar for your troubles, get yourself some Sour Patch Kids."_

Sheldon had prepared the new 31 page Relationship Agreement in advance, which stated clearly in Section 5 that handholding would be limited to occasions such as a brief handshake when a) they were in danger of falling off a cliff or precipice; b) receiving their Nobel Prize or c) as an offer of moral support when receiving their 'flu shot, no other forms of physical contact would be permitted and their scheduled Date Nights would only occur on every second Thursday of the month, or every third Thursday if the month contained five weeks. They'd only been an actual couple for a few weeks when Amy had flagrantly flaunted the rules by throwing herself into his arms and kissing him when he bought her a tiara as an apology. He'd now lost count of how many hugs (and a few more kisses once they had past their second anniversary) had been exchanged between them; but up until the last few months, they had all been initiated by Amy.

Sheldon started flicking through the photographs on his laptop and a smile flickered across his lips as he recalled when it was he first admitted to himself, and by extension to Leonard, that he was developing a deep affection for Amy. He paused on a photo of Amy dressed as Nurse Chapel from Star Trek: The Original Series and the smile developed into a fully-fledged grin as he remembered her great seduction plan. Amy had scheduled Date Night to take place in her apartment and announced that she was going to attempt to make Sheldon like her even more through a series of carefully planned events. She suggested some romantic music as they ate and soon the sounds of the original Mario Kart theme music filled the apartment. That was when things really started to get wild…

_"__Would you like a drink, Sheldon?"_

_"__Thank you, Amy, but you know I don't drink." Sheldon looked over at his girlfriend in surprise, did she honestly know so little about him that she would offer to ply him with alcohol?_

_"__Not even…Strawberry Quik?" Amy pulled the jug out of the ice bucket and presented it to Sheldon who clapped his hands with glee._

_"__My favourite pink beverage, seconded by Pepto Bismol." Amy poured Sheldon a glass of the milky liquid and then poured a small amount of white wine into her own glass before crossing over to pick up the casserole dish off the kitchen counter._

_"__I hope you enjoy dinner, I made your favourite." Amy presented the dish to Sheldon who grinned in delight as he started scooping the dish onto his plate._

_"__Ooh, spaghetti with little hot dogs cut up! Um, yum! We need to do this more often!" Sheldon paused as he rose the fork halfway to his mouth when he realised that her fiendish plan was working. Amy winked over at him as she carefully sipped her glass of wine. _

The next day she had arranged a special surprise for Sheldon by arranging for him to become an Amtrak Junior Conductor for the day, a treat usually reserved just for children. Amy had persuaded them to make an exception in his case and before Sheldon had even realised it; they were seeing each other more or less every week. One day Leonard had walked into the apartment to find Sheldon lying prone on the couch with Amy dressed as Nurse Chapel, running a medical tricorder all over his body. He had told Leonard that he was in hell, but then had turned around to Amy and told her not to stop with the exam. Leonard had disappeared straight into his room; but had sneaked back in to take some photos of Amy dressing up for Sheldon which he was preparing to keep as a blackmail source; instead Sheldon had asked for all of the images to be transferred over to his laptop; stating that it was not going to be any use in Leonard trying to deny their existence, due to his Vulcan like hearing Sheldon had known exactly what his room-mate was up to the whole time.

It wasn't until their friend Howard went up to the International Space Station that Sheldon had initiated the hand holding contact by reaching over to grasp Amy's hand as their group sat watching Howard's launch on television. A few short days later it was their second anniversary and Sheldon had nearly lost Amy for good when he decided that he would invite Raj along; using a loop hole in the contract that he'd drafted for this very purpose; he was scared of his growing feelings and just didn't know how to deal with them.

_"__Did I ever tell you you're like a sexy praying mantis?" Amy slurred slightly as she took another sip from her glass of champagne, provided by Raj before he made a swift exit from the restaurant._

_"__Every time you drink alcohol." Sheldon confirmed._

_"__You know, what's wonderful about the praying mantis… they devour their mate." _

_"__Your point being?" Sheldon watched as Amy flicked open the top button of her blouse, which on other women might have been classed as a sexy manoeuvre but as she was wearing a long denim dress over the blouse with a thick cardigan over the dress, there really wasn't that much skin to reveal._

_"__Dessert is served." She said with a slightly loopy grin, still holding onto the slender stem of the champagne glass._

_"__I just had cobbler." Sheldon stated, not understanding where the conversation was leading. Amy looked at him with regret in her eyes as she re-buttoned her blouse._

_"__You know what? I'm done with this." She got up from her seat and grabbed her bag from the back of her chair._

_"__Where are you going?"_

_"__I'm leaving."_

_"__You can't leave, I need you." With Sheldon's passionate statement, Amy turned around to face him._

_"__You do?" She asked quietly, running her fingers across the strap of her leather shoulder bag._

_"__Yes…you're my ride." Sheldon stated, he was a little tongue tied if he was going to perfectly honest, and blurted out the first thing that came into his head. Amy was growing increasingly frustrated with her boyfriend of two years, either he was prepared to give a little or she was out of the door._

_"__Sheldon, you either say something meaningful and from the heart…or you and I are done." Amy stood with her arms folded across her body, and stared down at where Sheldon was still seated at the dinner table._

_"__Alright." Sheldon placed his napkin on the table and looked over at his girlfriend. He gestured for her to take the seat next to him. "Please." Amy sat down and Sheldon collected his thoughts before he began to speak. "Amy…when I look in your eyes and you're looking back into mine…everything feels…not quite normal. Because I feel, stronger and weaker at the same time. I feel excited, and at the same time, terrified. The truth is, I don't know what I feel; except I know what kind of man I want to be."_

_"__Sheldon…" Amy whispered softly, "That was beautiful."_

_"__I should hope so, that's from the first 'Spider-Man' movie." Amy thought for a moment and then nodded her head._

_"__I'll take it."_


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: So we're now in Season Six for our little snippets of Shamy; Sheldon has told Amy that he's going to be returning back to Pasadena in the next few days, but do you remember the 'top secret' e-mail that he sent to Leonard? This chapter is going to be all about that as we catch up on how things are back home and let Sheldon settle down to enjoy his voyage home.**

Sheldon and Leonard's apartment: yesterday evening

"Yeah…see that missile launcher? Eat that suckers!" Amy's hoot of laughter as she took out yet another of Penny's team in Halo had Leonard looking over at her in surprise. He had never taken Amy for a video game type, but then she had spent a lot of time in Sheldon's company so it was bound to have rubbed off on her eventually.

"Hey! I got an e-mail from Sheldon!" He piped up as his laptop screen lit up with a new message, he paused the game as he ran over to check out the latest travel blog from their currently nomadic friend.

"Ooh, let me see!" Penny cooed as she rose up from the armchair and gave a little wobble as she promptly sat back down again. "Never mind… not sure I can see straight at the moment anyway."

"Yeah, that's probably the only reason why I'm whipping your proverbial ass in Halo right now, bestie. Let's blame it on the wine, shall we?" Amy smirked a little as she made a note of the fact that she'd not only beaten Penny but also topped Leonard's score as well; and considering that Halo night was every Wednesday in the Cooper–Hofstedter household it gave her great satisfaction.

Leonard opened the attachment to Sheldon's e-mail and swiftly scanned it over; his jaw dropped open slightly as he read the contents and he was just about to announce the exciting news when he read the subject heading again, which very clearly stated that it was to be kept a secret from Amy at all costs; which meant that he couldn't tell his fiancée as she wouldn't be able to keep herself from spilling the beans to her best friend.

"Leonard, you have a very strange expression on your face. Does Sheldon have any news on his likely return?" Amy asked as she tried to peer over his shoulder to read the screen.

"No, no…" Leonard shut down his e-mail programme and closed the lid of his laptop as he tried to hide his smiling face. "Just some random thoughts about his journey… Now, look at you! If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you'd been sneaking in a little Halo practise when we weren't looking!" Leonard pretended that his excitement stemmed from seeing Amy's high digit score rather than the fact that the e-mail he'd just received from Sheldon was to inform him that he was returning home to Pasadena…tomorrow. "I think that's cause for a little celebration!"

"Because I managed to beat both of your scores? I hardly think that…alright then, just a small one. I have to get going soon, I have an early morning meeting with my lab team in the morning." Amy started to refuse the glass of wine, but then shrugged her shoulders as she held up her glass.

"Why don't you stay here tonight, Ames? Whack-a-doodle won't mind, it will be like he's here with us, you practically have the same schedules anyway. You can catch a lift into work in the morning with Leonard." Penny slurred a little from her chair and missed the look that flittered across Leonard's face. He was just about to offer an excuse as to why he couldn't take Amy in to work, when Amy herself came up with a negative response.

"If I stay here then I would still need to run home to change my clothes, I can't go in wearing the same outfit as today. Kripke would only make some sort of 'walk of shame' remark if I did. I think I'll make a cup of tea instead of having another glass of wine though." Amy set her almost full glass down on the coffee table and walked into the kitchen. She reached up for a blue mug, but instead brought down Sheldon's preferred mug of choice, one of bright yellow.

"Well, I'm going to have another glass…and I'll probably have another one after that in celebration." Leonard smiled happily as he drank down Amy's discarded glass and promptly filled it up again.

"Celebrate what?" Penny asked a little blearily from the armchair; Leonard thought quickly and pressed a swift kiss to her lips.

"To the most beautiful fiancée in the world, and her friend… who just managed to beat my best ever score in Halo; a cause worth celebrating if there ever was one. To Penny and Amy!" Leonard staggered slightly on his way to the couch and collapsed against the end cushion. Amy gave him a smile as she took Sheldon's spot on the other end and Leonard beamed goofily at her through his haze of alcohol.

"Hello, Amy."

"Hello, Leonard." Amy replied as she took a sip of the chamomile tea and sank back against Sheldon's striped cushion.

"Sheldon really loves you, you know that right?" Leonard leant forward and pressed his finger against his lips, making a loud shushing noise, whilst looking over at Penny. "You can't tell Penny though. It's a secret."

"What's a secret?" Amy laughed as Leonard's face screwed up as he tried to remember what the e-mail was about and the reason Penny couldn't be told.

"That came out a little weird…" Leonard said and leant forward on the couch. "Penny's a blabbermouth and Sheldon asked me not to tell her 'cause she would only turn around and tell you…Sheldon really loves you." He repeated, certain that was what the e-mail said, and Penny was asleep so she couldn't tell Amy.

"I know." Amy said as she struggled to keep her eyes open; they'd been playing Halo ever since Raj, Howard and Bernadette had left just after nine o'clock and it was now nearly midnight.

"Hey! That's from Star Wars! Did you know that's what Hans Solo says to Leia…" Leonard's words trailed off as his head slowly drifted sideways until it was almost leaning against Amy's shoulder. She didn't mind one bit, as her head was firmly snuggled against the cushion that still held those little traces of talcum scent.

Penny woke up with an incredible thirst for a glass of water around three the next morning and couldn't resist snapping a picture of the two of them snuggled up against Sheldon's spot; as if they were both trying to draw in a little of Sheldon into their lungs. She sent it off to Sheldon with a little grin and woke Amy with a gentle nudge to her arm.

"Hey, Ames…Not that I mind you snuggling up with Leonard all night, but you're gonna be mighty sore in the morning if you don't try and get some proper sleep. Go on, take off that skirt and blouse and pilfer something out of Sheldon's closet. Make sure you set the alarm so that you don't oversleep. I'm gonna take Romeo over to my place so that we can all get some proper sleep, see you tomorrow night."

"Yeah, night bestie." Still half asleep, Amy stumbled down the hallway into Sheldon's room; hearing Leonard's quiet grumbles as Penny woke him up to guide in across the landing and into her own apartment. Amy stripped her layers off and grabbed the first t-shirt that she came to from Sheldon's dresser – a Batman shirt that fell almost to her knees. She crawled into Sheldon's bed and arranged one of the pillows to sit against her back. She folded one arm across her waist, and that combined with the pillow behind her was enough for her to almost believe that it was Sheldon lying spooned up against her in his bed.

"G'night, Sheldon. I love you." Amy murmured into the darkness and turned her head into his pillow, taking the scent of his laundry detergent and fabric softener deep into her lungs as she fell asleep; comforted by the fact that she felt closer to him than she had been for a long time.

Miles away, in a sleeper car crossing the country; Sheldon smiled in his sleep as he turned over in his narrow bunk; his pose almost mirroring Amy's exactly.

"I know." He murmured in his sleep, hugging his spare pillow to his chest as he sank deeper into a REM state.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I just wanted to say a big 'thank you' to everyone that has taken the time to leave a review, I'm so happy that you like it. For those of you who are a little confused over Sheldon's 'top secret' e-mail to Leonard, I want the actual contents to be a surprise but there's a little hint in this chapter (if you want an even bigger hint send me a PM and I'll leave you a little trail of M&M's to follow…)**

"Guys, I had a request from Sheldor the Conqueror last night; and it nearly blew up in my face when I almost spilt the beans to Amy." Leonard had woken up with a mild hangover, but when he re-read the e-mail from Sheldon (just to make sure he hadn't dreamt the whole episode) it quickly disappeared to be replaced by the buzz of excitement occupying his mind instead. He'd showered in record time and left Penny's apartment before she'd even woken up. He'd called an emergency breakfast meeting in the Caltech canteen and was filling in Howard and Raj.

"What does the goofball want now, more t-shirts to be sent to Galveston?" Raj sighed, he had been looking forward to meeting Emily for breakfast and having a threesome with his friends just didn't hold the same appeal.

"Take a look." Leonard shoved his phone across the table and when Howard and Raj started chuckling, he realised that he'd left it on the photo that Sheldon had forwarded onto him.

"She's not for you…" Raj read aloud and looked across at Leonard in shock. "Dude, you made a move on Amy? That is so not cool!"

"No! That was years ago…and I didn't make a move, I strained my groin doing the Hokey Pokey and Sheldon misconstrued the situation completely." Leonard pulled the phone back over and scrolled through until he reached the 'top secret' mission file.

"But the two of you look so cozy, all snuggled up in Sheldon's spot like that." Howard remarked and stopped when Leonard frowned at him over the top of his glasses.

"That was last night, I drank a little too much once I read Sheldon's e-mail and fell asleep on Amy." Leonard shrugged, "I was so buzzed at Sheldon's request and I couldn't tell Penny or Amy…can't remember what excuse I gave in the end. Anyway, that's not the point…" Leonard leant in close to Howard and passed him over a piece of paper. Howard unfolded it to read:

_Ever since I met you, you've turned my world around_  
><em>You've supported all my dreams and all my hopes<em>  
><em>You're like Uranium-235 and I'm Uranium-238,<em>  
><em>Almost inseparable isotopes<em>

"You kept this?" Howard asked with a small smile on his face as he gently caressed the piece of paper.

"No, it was part of Sheldon's e-mail. He memorised the whole thing; I just printed off a little."

"Good times." Howard smiled in fond remembrance and then sat forward in his chair with a look of horror on his face. "Please don't tell me that Sheldon wants us to break up with Amy for him a la singing telegram."

"No! Quite the opposite actually." Leonard sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest as he watched Howard and Raj skim through the full e-mail.

"That's so beautiful!" Raj exclaimed tearfully as he grabbed a napkin to wipe his eyes. Howard drummed his fingers on the table top as he thought about what it would take to pull the whole thing off successfully.

"Gentlemen, I think that we've all suddenly come down with a case of food poisoning from last night's takeaway." He quietly stated and kicked Raj under the table just as he was about to say otherwise.

"Oh, yes. My tummy is feeling like all of Delhi is about to explode from it." Raj rose from the table and gave an exaggerated groan.

"Yeah…feeling that Pad Thai is gonna make a return visit anytime now." Leonard chimed in and all three ran out of the canteen and started making plans on the way down to Howard's lab.

"I'm going to need one of these…and a few of these…grab me one of those kits from the side, will you Raj?" Howard mumbled half to himself as he started loading a trolley with various items from his workshop. "Leonard, I take it that you can lay your hands on the MVPD and Sheldon's programme fairly easily?"

"Yeah, the whole thing is in his closet at the apartment; can you get hold of everything else that you need?" Leonard motioned for Raj to keep an eye out in the corridor, and when Raj signalled it was all clear Howard and Leonard started to push the loaded trolley out to the car park.

"All in hand, my friend. When call I fill Bernie in?" Howard paused as he looked at the tiny amount of boot space in his mini compared with the paraphernalia still to be loaded.

"I don't want the girls to let the cat out of the bag too soon, if you tell Bernie and she tells Penny…well let's just say I'll be sleeping on the couch for not filling her in. What if I tell Penny at lunchtime – she's not working today so she won't even be conscious until at least eleven. Can Bernie keep her mouth shut until then? Will that be enough time for you to set everything up?" Leonard asked as he took some of the gear off the trolley and began to fill his own boot up.

"Let me see. I've got to set up the live feed and remote link from there...run an interface through to the Shel-bot…That needs to be done by five…we're still going to need time for everyone to play their part. What if we have our ladies meet us at Sheldon's around one? I'll get Bernie to squeeze afternoon off to come over and help set up."

"Will she be all right doing that? You know she's in the middle of a major drug trial at the moment." Raj asked Howard, who gave him a smug grin.

"I know my lady, Raj and can give you two reasons why she will do this. 1) It's for the Shamy and 2) I'll tell her that we can spend Thanksgiving this year at her parent's instead of with Ma."

"Ooohhh the Shamy! I think I'm going to have a little moment…" Raj breathed in and out a few times in an effort to get his emotions under control. The thought that this could be the pivotal moment in the lives of two of his dearest friends made him an emotional roller coaster.

"Hey, Raj – they're gonna be fine. It's the Shamy, remember? It may have taken them a few years to realise what was really happening, but with our help it **will **happen. They have to be the steadiest couple out of the lot of us, just look how many bumps Penny and I had to go through to get where we are today; the Shamy – they're always gonna be together." Leonard patted Raj on the shoulder and received a watery smile in thanks.

"Okay, let's do this!" Howard slammed his boot shut and the guys exchanged a quick high five before climbing into their respective vehicles and heading off to Los Robles. Not five minutes later all three were on their speaker phones.

"Penny, yeah I'm sorry to wake you so early…no the sun is still up….uh-huh…PENNY! Shut up and listen! The Shamy is on…"

"Bernie? I got some great news…"

"Emily my sweet, love is going to be all around tonight. Ooh, yes that would be nice, but I wasn't referring to us exactly…remember I said that Sheldon had as much romance in his soul as his computer? Well, it turned out I may have been a little wrong about that…"

Half an hour later, the sounds of excited squeals from the hallway had each of the men looking at each other in dismay.

"I thought I said that it was a secret?" Leonard frowned over at where Howard was suddenly very busy making adjustments to Sheldon's computer programme and Raj was looking everywhere apart from in his direction. The door burst open and three very excited females piled through the door and started jumping up and down in glee.

"When?" "What time?" "How?" They fired off the questions in quick succession at Leonard and he sighed as he passed over a print out of Sheldon's e-mail and shoved a box of tissues within easy reach. Sure enough, when they came to the end they all grabbed a tissue to wipe their eyes.

"Guess our little Pinocchio is a real boy after all. Who'd have thought he would have had it in him to come up with all of this?" Penny sighed as she looked over at Leonard who gave her a slightly goofy grin in return.

"So ladies, are you all in?" Howard rubbed his hands together and Raj jumped up and down in glee as Penny, Emily and Bernadette all nodded at the same time. "Okay, Bernie – I need you to run over to the apartment and grab what's on this list." Howard gave her a scribbled list of last minute things that he'd forgotten to pick up, luckily everything he needed was on hand at their place. "Penny, could you and Emily familiarise yourself with this?" Howard handed over the separate attachment to Sheldon's e-mail that he'd printed off and Penny scanned it briefly before looking back over at Howard with tears sparkling on her lashes.

"Sheldon really thought hard about this one, didn't he?"

"He really did, I guess that talk with his meemaw really helped him focus on what he really wants out of life; and I think we can all see what that is now." Howard smiled as he looked over at where Bernadette was gathering her bag together in preparation to make the run over to their apartment. Bernadette looked over to see him smiling at her and blew him an air kiss in return.

"Come on Emily, let's go over to my place and have a little chat while the guys get everything set up in here. Meet you back in an hour or so?" Penny rose from the couch, still clutching the print out and checked the timings with Leonard.

"Make it two, just to be on the safe side. He's going to call around four, said he wasn't going to leave things to chance." Leonard gave Penny a brief kiss as Emily waved a goodbye to Raj who was laying cabling across the floor as he tinkered with the platform connectors on the MVPD.

"Okay, see you in a few." Penny and Emily crossed the hallway and entered Penny's apartment; just in time for Penny to burst into tears as soon as the door closed behind them.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: So for those of you that might have guessed what Sheldon has planned, well done! For the rest of you – are you sure that you've watched TBBT at all? You need to leave this site now; head to your DVD player and re-watch Season 7 all over again – and pay attention this time!**

"Penny, what is it? Do you want me to get Leonard for you?" Although Emily and Raj had only been seeing each other for a short time; she'd immediately bonded with the girls and was a frequent drop in on their girl's nights.

"No, I'm okay." Penny waved her hand in front of her face to try and stem her tears. "It's just that I can't believe the Shamy is actually about to happen! Ooh, here it comes again!" More tears fell and Penny sniffed them away before blowing her nose loudly into a tissue.

"I don't mean to sound obtuse…but 'The Shamy'?" Emily had heard the expression all afternoon but was still a little puzzled over it's meaning.

"You know Sheldon and Amy – The Shamy?"

"I see, so Raj and myself would be Rajily or Emiraj – you and Leonard are 'Lenny'; Howard and Bernadette could be either 'Howdette' or simply 'Bernard'…that's so sweet, I love it!" Emily burst into tears at the very thought and Penny leant over to pat her on the back and offered up another tissue.

"I know!" They cried on each other's shoulders for a few minutes before pulling themselves together. "Right, Sheldon's even left us some lines to learn." Penny waved the print out and Emily took it out of her hands and briefly scanned it.

"Ohhhh…I think I'm going to cry again."

"No…." Penny patted Emily's arm and they sat upright on the couch. "We are mature adults, we can do this. Now what's my first line…I am an actress, I can memorise."

"Penny, it's not a script," Emily explained, her eyes sparkling with tears of joy for her new found friends.

"Sure, it's a script. Look – Sheldon's even written in little notes where each person has a line…" Penny tapped the page again. "And some of them rhyme too…"

"Penny, we may start off by saying some scripted lines; but if you look closely it's a song. Sheldon wants us to sing Amy a song." Emily sang a few lines of what Sheldon had in mind and Penny started blubbering again as she realised what Dr. Whack-a-doodle was trying to say.

"She's going to love it." Penny wiped her eyes and took the pages back from Emily, "I recognise it now, and I can see why Howard was getting so excited – he and Amy have a lot in common. There was this one time where Raj set up this whole scavenger hunt for us, and we were all paired up. About two hours after it had finished, Howard and Amy strolled in the apartment and wondered why we all looked so miserable; they'd decided to blow the whole thing off and had gone to a karaoke bar instead. They've even gone to a few concerts together over the years, Bernadette said she was grateful because it meant that she didn't have to go…Yeah, Amy's going to absolutely love it, so we have to get it perfect. You up for a little karaoke, Emily?"

"Huh?"

"The boys have a machine over in their apartment, Sheldon and Amy have sing-a-long nights; I bet you ten bucks we can find it on there somewhere." Penny left Emily sitting on the couch and sprinted over to the boy's apartment to rifle through their games. "Darn it, I felt sure that they'd have it on her somewhere." She grumbled as she flicked through the track listing on the back of the casing.

"Nope, I think Sheldon thought this one up all on his lonesome." Howard grabbed his ipod out of his jacket pocket and threw it over in Penny's direction. "Here, scroll through this – track 15."

"Thanks Howard, I'll bring it back in a few." Penny started scrolling through Howard's ipod until she found the track required.

"Keep the doors open and whack up the volume a notch. We all need to get it right for later, it wouldn't hurt if we listened to it a couple of times…You know just for the sake of it." Howard suggested as Penny was about to close the door.

"Okay, Howard." Penny smirked as she left both apartment doors open as she pressed play so that everyone could immerse themselves in the music.

"Not that one! Track fifteen!" Howard yelled out as a throbbing beat started to play.

"Oops sorry! I thought that sounded a little weird. This better?" Penny giggled as she scrolled through again and hit play. The gentle piano notes filled the hallway and Howard sighed in relief.

"That's more like it. Turn it up a bit, please?" As Penny kicked the volume into high gear, Howard smiled as he began to hum along. "Thank you!"

Meanwhile, somewhere on a train heading towards California…

Sheldon was distractedly watching the passing scenery flash by and calculating whether he'd left enough time for his crazy scheme to actually work. His phone started spinning on the table-top indicating a new text message had been received.

**L: The gang's all here and we're prepping the Shel-bot now**

**S: Mobile Virtual Presence Device if you please, Leonard**

**L: ;) **

**S: I trust that you've managed to keep Amy out of the loop**

**L: She's safely tucked away in her lab, the girls will all be busy tonight so she's going to be home all alone**

**S: Excellent news! I am approximately four hours out of Pasadena; which makes my arrival time around five this preevening. I'm sure you will be all too busy to collect me from the station so I shall take a taxi home. **

**L: See you soon, buddy. BTW – Saw Wil at Comic Central; said he might call in tonight; do you want me to give him an excuse not to come over? I don't want him spoiling things for you and Ames**

**S: Let me think about it, I may owe him an apology for vomiting in his Azaleas**

**L: ?**

**S: Never mind, long story. I'll call him from the train…he does owe me a favour for what he did to Amy**

**L: ?**

**S: I'll fill you in when I get home**

Sheldon tossed his phone back on the small table and his mind drifted back over to what had prompted him to vomit in Wil Wheaton's Azalea bushes…

_"__Hey, look who's out after dark like a big boy." Leonard looked up as Sheldon stepped into the apartment._

_"__I was out raising heck with Mr. Wil Wheaton." Sheldon explained as he tossed his keys into the china bowl on the cabinet next to the door. "Four hours more and we would have closed down the HomeTown Buffet." Leonard swivelled away from his laptop as he tracked Sheldon's progress across the room._

_"__I thought you had plans with Amy."_

_"__Yeah, I did. But then Wil called Amy a pain in the A-S-S." Sheldon shrugged out of his jacket, carefully placing it over the back of his chair before he continued. "She got huffy and left, and then Wil and I headed out to dinner." Sheldon walked over to pluck a soft drink out of the refrigerator as Leonard tried to get his head around what Sheldon was telling him._

_"__Hold on. Wil and Amy had an argument?"_

_"__Yes, quite the kerfuffle." Sheldon confirmed and Leonard still looked puzzled. _

_"__Then Amy got made and left?"_

_"__Walked right out the door."_

_"__And you…?"_

_"__Enjoyed a delightful dinner at a reasonable price. The manager recognised Wil and let us sit right next to the frozen yogurt machine. Right next to it. I was closer to it than I am to you right now." Sheldon didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that he'd probably hurt Amy's feelings by siding with Wil and Leonard sighed as he tried to make Sheldon see the error of his ways._

_"__Buddy, I think Amy might be upset."_

_"__Why's that?"_

_"__Because your friend was rude to her and then you went to dinner with him." _

_"__You're just repeating what I said." Sheldon's forehead wrinkled up as he tried and failed to follow Leonard's reasoning. "It's like living with a lactose intolerant parrot." He stated as he turned back to his laptop to bring it out of hibernation mode._

_"__Trust me. Call her." Leonard urged as he stood behind Sheldon's desk. _

_"__Fine." Sheldon sighed as he made the Skype request to Amy. "It's a shame you didn't go to dinner with us, because the buffet you're about to enjoy only serves humble pie; a dessert much less tasty than frozen yogurt." Sheldon looked over his shoulder at Leonard as he waited for Amy to accept his request._

_"__What?" Her abrupt tone confirmed Leonard's theory that she was indeed mad at Sheldon but Sheldon still couldn't see it._

_"__You'll appreciate this. Leonard has some ridiculous notion that you're mad at me." Sheldon jerked his thumb over at Leonard and waited for Amy to laugh off the suggestion…"Tell him you're not mad at me. Go ahead, set him straight." Sheldon waited…and waited some more. _

_"__I'm mad at you, Sheldon." Sheldon sat back in his chair with a look of surprise on his face, one glance behind told him that Leonard was wearing his 'I told you so' expression. _

_"__Hmmm. Eat one of your Luna Bars." Sheldon suggested, and saw Amy frown in confusion on the screen. "Very often, when women think they're angry, they're really just hungry."_

_"__I'm not hungry." Amy stated in a firm tone. "Your friend insulted me and you didn't do anything."_

_"__Precisely. I didn't do __**anything**__." Sheldon almost sounded like a child whinging because they were being told off for something that clearly wasn't their fault. "Now, does someone feel like checking her emotional math?"_

_"__Keep going, buddy. You're doing great." Leonard stated as he made a swift exit from the apartment, already knowing that Amy was on the verge of tearing Sheldon off a strip and as much as he felt like sticking around just to see the fallout; he decided to leave them to it._

_"__Sheldon, I'm your girlfriend and you should have taken my side. That's it. End of story. Good night." Amy cut off the connection and Sheldon sat staring at the blank screen in complete amazement._

_"__Wow, Amy's mad and Leonard was right. What a weird day." Dismissing the notion as a once in a lifetime event, Sheldon turned back to his equations and got back to work. That lasted for about ten minutes before he was up and out of the door…_

_Knock, knock, knock "Amy."_

_Knock, knock, knock "Amy."_

_Knock, knock, knock "Angry Amy." Sheldon tapped on Amy's apartment door and she swung it open, clearly in no mood for visitors._

_"__What?"_

_"__I've been thinking about what happened, and I hope this gift will make things better." Sheldon reached down into a gift bag and pulled out a DVD box set and handed it over._

_"__Star Trek DVDs?" Amy turned the box over and her brow wrinkled in disgust. "Why would I want this?"_

_"__First of all, you're welcome. Furthermore, not being familiar with Wil Wheaton's body of work, there was no way for you to know that you were being rude to a national treasure. Get ready for 130 hours of 'I told you so.'" Sheldon took an abrupt step back into the hallway as he found himself once again holding the box set and facing a closed door. "Fine. I'll just tell you what happens…Episode one, 'Encounter at Farpoint.'" Sheldon stepped closer to the door and prepared to take Amy through the entire box set verbally. "Fade in. The new Enterprise heads out on it's maiden voyage to contact the Bandi people of Deneb IV. Enter Wesley Crusher, played by my buddy…" Amy's door re-opened only for her to take the DVDs out of Sheldon's grasp before slamming the door in his face once again. "She's hooked." Sheldon grinned as he walked down the hallway, sure in the fact that all was right in his world once more. _

_"__Hey! What brings you in?" Penny turned around from where she was tending bar at the Cheesecake Factory to see Sheldon take a seat on a bar stool._

_"__Penny, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a conversation about girls." Sheldon asked as he got comfortable at the bar._

_"__Had a feeling we'd have a talk like this sooner or later." Penny muttered as she looked over at where Sheldon was hunched over leaning on his elbows. "Are you finally getting fuzz in weird places?"_

_"__Penny, please, I'm on the horns of a relationship dilemma. And for the record, I had a full pubis of hair by the time I was 19." _

_"__And for the record…aargghhh!" Penny mimed throwing up over the bar and looked straight at Sheldon. "So what are you drinking?"_

_"__Well, it's been a rough day. I usually go chamomile tea, but I don't think that's gonna cut it."_

_"__You could have a Long Island iced tea." Penny suggested with a slight smirk. _

_"__Will that calm my nerves?" Sheldon asked and Penny bit back a grin as she assured him it definitely would do that. _

_"__It's calmed the pants off me a couple of times." _

_"__Sold." Penny smiled again as she started mixing Sheldon's drink, ensuring that she kept the bottles out of sight under the counter. _

_"__So the heart you got from the wizard giving you trouble?" She quipped as she filled a tall glass with ice and started pouring the ingredients over the top._

_"__The trouble isn't with me, Penny, it's with your gender. Someday scientists will discover that second X chromosome contains nothing but nonsense and twaddle."_

_"__Yeah, Amy told me what happened. Look, just apologise. It'll warm her twaddle." _

_"__That's a Band-Aid at best. The core problem is that Amy and Wil do not like each other; which is baffling because they're both crazy about me. And I like them, which indicates they're bright and interesting and/or were on 'Star Trek'."_

_"__Honey, you can't make people like each other." Penny stated as she squirted some soda water over Sheldon's drink and gave it a brief stir with a straw before sliding it down the bar to him. _

_"__Not true." Sheldon disagreed. "Leonard made me like you. Let me tell you that was a hard row to hoe." Sheldon picked up the drink and toasted Penny. "Cheers, pal." He took a long draft through the straw. "Ooh! Boy, that is a treat that's hard to beat. Get the Mad Hatter on the horn. I'm having a tea party." Penny grinned at the sight of Sheldon becoming a little happy after just one slurp; her smile faded slightly as she watched him drain most of the glass in one go._

_"__You might want to pace yourself." She warned and Sheldon briefly looked up in slight admonishment._

_"__I drink tea all the time. I think I know what I'm doing."_

_"__Far be it for me to criticise a man with a full pubis." Penny retorted and stood back to watch Sheldon drain the rest of the glass. "Look, Sheldon, your problem is not Wil Wheaton. Your problem is the way you treated Amy."_

_"__The problem is I'm out of tea." Sheldon placed the empty glass on the counter and Penny picked it up to pour him a refill._

_"__Come on, someone just insulted your girlfriend, and you just let him do it? I thought you Texas guys stood up for your womenfolk."_

_"__Oh, Penny, please. I think I've evolved beyond my simple rustic upbringing." _

_"__Sorry."_

_"__On the other hand, that low-down polecat done wronged my woman." Sheldon's twang was greatly exaggerated by the large amounts of liquor lacing his tea._

_"__Welcome to Long Island, Tex." Penny muttered as she busied herself wiping down the counter, whilst keeping an eye on Sheldon at the same time. _

_"__Amy deserves better. You know, when we buy the Planters Deluxe Mix she eats all the Brazil nuts so I don't have to look at them. She's a unique blend of saint and squirrel."  
>"Yup, that she is. Here you go." Penny slid Sheldon's refill across the bar with a grin, liking the sound of this loosened up Sheldon.<em>

_"__I'm a callous egomaniac, she's gonna leave me." Sheldon moaned piteously as he leant his chin on his hand, only to miss it entirely to nearly face plant the wooden counter. _

_"__No, she won't." Penny tried to reassure him with a soft smile, which faded as Sheldon shook his head with a slightly goofy grin._

_"__No, she won't. I'm great." Sheldon grabbed his 'tea' and slurped it down like there was no tomorrow. Penny wondered whether she should cut him off after this second round, especially when his eyes started to glaze over slightly and he started muttering about how he was gonna hog tie Wil Wheaton and make him pay…when she turned around to serve someone else and then looked back, Sheldon was gone._

_"__Hey, Sheldon, what's up?" A smiling Wil Wheaton opened his front door to see a slightly weaving Sheldon standing on his front porch._

_"__Wouldn't you like to know."_

_"__Have you been drinking?" Wil asked as Sheldon swayed slightly and grasped the edge of the doorframe to stay upright._

_"__Just tea." Sheldon confirmed. "It was the best tea I've ever had." _

_"__Why are you here?" Wil asked, slightly confused over Sheldon's sudden appearance; they had only had dinner together the previous evening and Wil sincerely hoped that Sheldon wasn't about to ask him to do another web show in the immediate future._

_"__I'll tell you. I'm from Texas." Sheldon placed one hand on his hip and leant in a little closer in what he hoped was a threatening gesture. "Need I say more?"_

_"__Yeah, actually, a little more would be helpful." Wil looked very confused, Sheldon was obviously three sheets to the wind and looked as if he was going to pass out at any moment. _

_"__You insulted my woman. I'm here to defend her honour. Two." Sheldon suddenly remembered that he hadn't performed his three knock ritual. "It was two." He rapped on the doorframe again; "Wil Wheaton!" Sheldon weaved on his feet and held his fists up in front of him in a classic boxing pose. "Now prepare yourself for what may come."_

_"__Oh, Sheldon, do you really think we're gonna fight?" _

_"__My fists are not up here because I'm milking a giant invisible cow. They're up to beat an apology out of you." _

_"__Okay, I'm sorry." Wil graciously conceded and Sheldon dropped his hands._

_"__Well, that was a long bus ride for not very much." Sheldon weaved a little more erratically and stepped away from the front door, his face paled a little. Wil stepped outside to steady his friend._

_"__Are you okay?" He asked in concern, and Sheldon looked even paler as he felt his delicious tea was about to make a not so tasty reappearance._

_"__You're asking a lot of questions, Wil Wheaton. As a matter of idle curiosity, which of your shrubberies do you feel would benefit from a thorough vomiting?" Sheldon held up a hand before Wil could speak. "Never mind, I'll choose." Sheldon rushed over the porch and proceeded to vomit both glasses of tea in quick succession. "You were so good in 'Stand By Me'." Wil made a face at the sound of Sheldon vomiting all over his Azalea's but offered him a steady hand as he guided him down to sit on the steps._

_"__Come on, buddy. Let me call Leonard and have him pick you up." Wil left Sheldon sitting on the steps as he walked inside to place the call. Sheldon didn't remember Leonard picking him up or the journey home, only the fact that that darned tea had tasted so good on the way down; but perfectly horrid on the way back up. _

"Sir? Can I offer you a refreshment, tea perhaps?" A feminine voice cut through Sheldon's musings, he lifted his head to see a hostess cart being pushed down the carriage. He waved the offer away with a slightly sickly smile, had he not been thinking about the way Wil's Azaleas had never fully recovered, he might have been in the mood for a soothing cup of chamomile…definitely not now though.


	8. Chapter 8

Back in Pasadena, Bernadette made her way up to the fourth floor nearly bent over double with the weight of the electric keyboard that Howard had sent her over to their apartment to collect.

"Bernadette? Here let me give you a hand with that…" Leonard was crossing the hallway and saw the diminutive figure nearly buried under the keyboard as she tried to navigate the final turn of the stairs.

"Thank you, Leonard. It's nice to know that there are still SOME GENTLEMEN left in the world." Bernadette's voice deepened into an uncanny approximation of Mrs. Wolowitz which had Howard darting out into the hallway to see why on earth his mother would be in the apartment complex.

"Hey Ma…my Bernadette." Howard swiftly changed his tone, and greeted his wife with a gentle peck on the cheek. Leonard passed the keyboard over to Howard and stifled a smile as the smaller man also struggled under the weight.

"Where's Penny and Emily?" Bernadette asked as she walked into Sheldon's apartment and sat down on the couch.

"Well after an impromptu sing-a-long they've decided to rummage through Sheldon's wardrobe to pick him out something classy for him to wear tonight…Penny thinks tonight might be the night." Leonard jerked his thumb over to the hallway and Howard added leant over to add in a whisper.

"I'll give you two guesses where Raj is…"

"Not the tartan pants or jacket, Raj!" Penny yelled out from within Sheldon's room. "We're trying to get them both naked; not petrified." Leonard caught sight of a secretive little smile flittering across Bernadette's face and he stopped what he was doing to wonder why.

"You know something don't you?"

"No…of course not, Leonard. What makes you ask?" Bernadette immediately broke off eye contact with Leonard and feigned an interest in a comic book left lying on the table. "Ooh, I haven't seen this one."  
>"Bernie, since when have you been interested in reading…" Howard tilted his head sideways to read the title; "Aquaman? Really, Bernadette, by the way – it's upside down." Bernadette shot a look over at Howard to let him know that any naughty business was definitely off the table that evening, but continued to look everywhere except directly at them.<p>

"My lips are sealed." She mimed a zipper closing across her mouth and pressed her lips firmly together resolutely.

"Penny, sweetie, could you come out here a minute?" Leonard walked over to the single step leading to the bedrooms and called out for his fiancée to join them; if anyone could prise a secret out of Bernadette it would be his Penny.

"What's the buzz, my hot tub of fuzz?" Penny came sauntering down the hallway and greeted Leonard with a smacking kiss to the cheek.

"Bernadette knows something, and she's not willing to share the details; so they must be hot ones…" Leonard returned Penny's kiss with a soft hug and Penny whirled around to pounce on her unsuspecting prey.

"You have details? How can you have details? You live right across town and Amy is my best friend. How come I don't have details? Bernadette, I neeeeed all the juicy stuff and I need it now!" Penny bounced up and down in the middle cushion, nearly toppling Bernadette in the process.

"Okay, okay! Jeez…" Bernadette straightened her glasses, and looked around the room before she made her shock announcement. "Sheldon'sseenAmynaked."

"What was that?" Leonard, Howard and Penny asked at the same time; each thinking that they couldn't have possibly heard her correctly.

"Sheldon has seen Amy naked." Bernadette repeated slowly and Penny gasped.

"How? When? Where? Details, Bernadette, I need details." Instead of Penny, it was Howard that pressed her for more information.

"Raj, Emily; get out here, you're both gonna want to hear this." Bernadette yelled down the hallway, as soon as the couple appeared; Bernadette told the whole story.

_Sheldon was supposed to accompany Amy to a memorial service for a colleague from Amy's biochemistry department; but when he got to her apartment she was too poorly to attend. Having signed the binding relationship agreement, Sheldon was obligated to take care of his girlfriend. He tried to get out of it, by telling her that the intent behind that particular cause was to force Amy to take care of him when he was ill; and not the other way around._

"That's Sheldon for you, always thinking of himself. Whackadoodle." Penny muttered, and Bernadette shot her a dirty look.

"Do you wanna hear the rest of the story or not?" Again, Bernadette sounded freakishly like Howard's Mother and Penny shrank back against the cushions.

"I'm sorry, Bernie. Please continue."

"Thank you. Now where was I? Oh, yes…"

_Sheldon must have realised that he'd hurt Amy's feelings because he went back to her apartment and apologised; he told her that he'd made a commitment in writing to comfort her in times like that and that as she was his girlfriend, he cared about her wellbeing. Sheldon took her temperature every half an hour, placed a cold rag on her forehead and even sang her 'Soft Kitty'. Then he said he needed to apply VapoRub to her chest._

"Oh my God! The old VapoRub trick! Go, Sheldon!" Raj rubbed his hands together, and Emily nudged him as Bernadette's eyes narrowed in warning. "Oh, sorry – you were saying?"

"Amy didn't appear to be getting any better, she was stuck on that couch for three days and so I called over to see if there was anything I could do to help. I walked in as Sheldon was reading her a bedtime story…I heard him made some comment about how VapoRub gets her all fired up just as he opened the door."

"I bet it did; how could Sheldon not have realised that she was obviously enjoying his attention?" Howard commented and Leonard just gave him a look that said it all. "Oh, yeah…I forgot who we were talking about for a moment."

"Anyway, I walked in and sat down on the couch. I'd taken over a few samples that we were working on in the lab at the time; but Amy didn't appear to be too interested. It was only when Sheldon left the room to draw her a bath that she admitted that she was stringing him along…she'd gotten better after the first day! She'd even pasted rubber cement around her nose to make it seem like she was still congested."

"Go Amy! I guess she just really liked having Sheldon around." Penny hooted and exchanged a high five with Leonard. "I think I see where this is heading…"

"Yeah…she promised that she would come clean with him, and she did look pretty guilty for stringing him along. That all changed when he said he would help her in the bath…I've never seen someone move that fast in their life."

"How did he find out?"

"Sheldon got a cheek swab while she was sleeping, and had it cultured in the lab. Amy later told me that Sheldon said he felt hurt that she would lie to him like that…and so he had to punish her." Bernadette smirked as she recalled how Amy had described his particular form of 'punishment'.

"From the look on your face, I guess Amy enjoyed the punishment too…" Penny grinned and Bernadette gave a girlish giggle that she tried to hide.

"Yeah, who would have guessed that our little Amy would have liked a good spanking?" Everyone's face held the same amount of surprise followed by tears of laughter.

"I guess Sheldon got his revenge so to speak, after he told Kripke that pack of lies to get him off his back." Leonard remarked and Howard chuckled as he remembered the rumours that had circulated the university just a few weeks later. Raj looked at both men with a hurt expression.

"I don't agree, I think what Sheldon did was very wrong; and I'm only glad that Amy didn't lose him for good over that little stunt." Penny stated as she remembered exactly what Sheldon had done.

"Wait, have I missed something else? Is this some stupid 'Bro's before ho's' pact?" Bernadette looked over at Leonard, Howard and Raj who all looked uncomfortable at her questioning.

"It was insulting to Amy, and I for one don't think that we should be talking about it anymore." Raj stated as he got up and headed back into Sheldon's room to finish selecting what outfit Sheldon should wear when he got home. Emily shrugged lightly and followed her boyfriend out of the room. Bernadette turned around and shot an expectant look at her husband, who merely looked over at Leonard and Penny instead. Leonard was the first to cave…

"It was when Sheldon and Barry were forced to work together on a joint grant proposal for a new fusion reactor. Sheldon was working day and night and then he realised that Barry had actually managed to turn in some amazing work. He admitted what he had done to Penny and me over dinner…"

_"__Cooper, we have a problem." Barry announced as he strode into Sheldon's office and threw the envelope containing Sheldon's proposal down on the desk. "Your work is really not at the level I expected it to be."_

_"__I know." Sheldon stated as he lowered his head in shame. "Go ahead and mock me. But use small words so l understand."_

_"__Don't play dumb with me. We both know what your problem is." Barry stated and Sheldon raised his head._

_"__We do?"_

_"You have a girlfriend." Barry stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world._

_"__So?"_

_"__So my work would suffer too if I was getting laid all the time." Barry smirked over at Sheldon who nodded slowly in response._

_"__Yes. That is the reason. My work is suffering because of all the laid I'm getting."_

_"__You lucky bastard." Barry grinned over at Sheldon who smiled weakly in response. _

_"__What can I say? You know, she enjoys my genitals. I am giving them to her on a nightly basis." Sheldon muttered sardonically as he placed his notebook into his desk drawer. _

_Okay, stop bragging." Barry pleaded and waved a hand over Sheldon's grant proposal. "You had some brilliant insights in here. But if we're gonna make this work, you need to buckle down and focus."  
>"Yeah, I'll do what I can. But it's not going to be easy because when I'm with Amy…and our bathing suit areas mush together…"Sheldon waved a hand expressively, and Barry nodded in sympathy as Sheldon continued; "because it…Boy, howdy…is it magic." Barry held out a hand offering a fist pump and Sheldon reluctantly reciprocated. <em>

_"__I don't understand. Why didn't you just tell Kripke the truth?" Penny asked over dinner that evening. She returned back to her seat after fetching a bottle of water from the refrigerator._

_"__Because the truth made me look bad." Sheldon stated as he continued to eat his meal. "Whereas a ridiculous bald-faced lie makes me look good." He turned to Leonard, "Anyway, if Kripke asks tell him my coitus with Amy is frequent, intense and whimsically inventive."_

_"__Sheldon, can I ask you a question?" Penny called over and Sheldon looked up._

_"__Of course." He replied, pausing with his fork in the air._

_"__Are you ever gonna sleep with Amy?" She asked bluntly, Leonard nearly choked on his salad and Sheldon blinked a few times before answering._

_"__That's awfully personal." Sheldon replied slowly, and Leonard turned to face his girlfriend._

_"__We don't ask Sheldon things like that." He muttered, with his eyebrows nearly raised to his hairline. Penny scoffed as she turned back to Sheldon._

_"__Maybe you don't, I do. What's the deal?"_

_"__Well, word around the university is I'm giving her sex organs a proper jostling."Sheldon didn't seem at all bothered that his slip up with Kripke had spread like wildfire, making Amy the brunt of many a foul joke. Penny set her carton of food down on the table and tried to be serious._

_"__All right, come on, be serious. You guys have been going out a long time. She would clearly like to have a physical relationship with you. So, what are you doing?"_

_"__All right, we're down a rabbit hole." Leonard remarked and turned around in his armchair to look at Sheldon. "What are you doing?"_

_"__Well, first of all, I'm quite fond of Amy." Sheldon admitted and Penny shrugged again._

_"__Then what's the problem?"_

_"__Penny…" Sheldon set his dinner down, appetite all but forgotten. "All my life I have been uncomfortable with the sort of physical contact that comes easily to others; handshaking, hugging…prostate exams. But I'm working on it, you know? Just recently, I had to put VaporRub on Amy's chest. A year ago, that would have been unthinkable."_

_"__Now you know how I feel when I have to put it on you." Leonard remarked and Sheldon's eyes widened. _

_"__Okay, now hang on. Are you saying someday you and Amy might… actually get physical?" Penny rolled her hands around as she tried to think of a delicate way of putting things without sending Sheldon screaming into his room. Sheldon looked away for a moment and said a single statement that had her hitting Leonard's arm in excitement._

_"__It's a possibility."_

"So, you did know about the Vaporub." Bernadette mused, as she thought about what Leonard had just revealed.

"Yeah, but not about him getting her naked in the bathtub." Penny replied thoughtfully, "I guess Sheldon's gotten better at keeping secrets than we first thought. I'm just glad that Amy never found out, it would have killed her to know that she was getting talked about behind her back."

"Who's talking about Amy behind her back? It's that low-down pole cat Wil Wheaton again, isn't it?" A very familiar drawl from the open doorway had everyone turning around to see a snarling and dishevelled Sheldon stalking into the apartment.

"Sheldon! I thought you were going to ring for one of us to pick you up from the station?" Penny ran over to give Sheldon a hug, which he barely tolerated before pushing her aside.

"I did call, numerous times I might add; but it seems that none of you are capable of answering a simple telephone call these days. Now, what's all this about someone talking about my Amy?" Sheldon threw his bags to one side, and stood with his hands propped on his hips as he waited for an explanation.

"No one Sheldon, we were just talking about the time when you started those rumours about your 'whimsically inventive' sex life with Amy to Barry Kripke; and that how we were glad Amy never found out about it." Leonard explained, wanting Sheldon not to get his Texan on again.

"Oh, that…She knows." Sheldon's face immediately relaxed as he heard Leonard's explanation, and he walked over to the couch to sink into his regular spot on the end of the couch, stroking the cushion as he sat down.

"What do you mean, 'she knows'?" Penny asked curiously, she looked over at Leonard who shook his head; certain that no one at the university would have filled her in on the scandalous rumours.

"I mean, I told her of course. Penny, Amy and I have no secrets from each other. I told her about the unfortunate case with Kripke and she told me all about how she secretly enjoyed our little spanking sessions. No secrets…ever."


	9. Chapter 9

Amy sat in her lab, carefully marking up specimens from her latest trial and tried very hard not to keep looking at the clock. Sheldon had promised to call her at seven o'clock and it was barely even four.

"Get a grip, Fowler." She said to herself as she pulled another tray closer to her. "You can't speed time up, and constantly looking at the clock does not make the hands move around any faster."

"Is everything okay, Dr. Fowler?" The sudden question from one of Amy's young partner's in the trial had her yelping in surprise.

"Oh, Susan. I didn't hear you come in; you startled me."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry, but you seem a little down today. Is there anything I can do to help?" Susan offered and Amy looked over with a smile.

"Thank you, but no. Aren't you supposed to be heading off early this evening?"  
>"Yes, I'm finally moving in with my boyfriend and I'm so excited!"<p>

"I know the feeling…I hope everything goes well for you, unfortunately I can't say the same thing for me. It was a disaster from start to finish, and I hadn't even moved in properly…" Amy saw that Susan had propped herself on a lab stool and taken half of the samples. "You really want to hear this? It won't put you off moving in with Daniel or anything?"

"No, go on…Nothing could stop me from moving in with my cutie pie. I'm all ears…until six o'clock anyway."

"Okay then, Sheldon and Leonard…Dr. Hofstadter… had a bit of a falling out and Leonard decided to move in with his girlfriend, Penny who lives across the hall from them. I was over there one afternoon lending Sheldon a hand as he started to pack up Leonard's stuff…"

_"So what's your plan moving forward?" Amy asked from the comfort of Leonard's armchair as Sheldon packed Leonard's collectibles in a packing box as she itemised each item._

_"I suppose I'll have to find and cultivate a new roommate. What a task that will be. Do you know how uncivilised Leonard was when I took him in?" Sheldon stopped boxing things up and turned around to face Amy. "It took me forever to get him on a bathroom schedule. He would just go whenever the mood struck him."_

_"Like a dog boy."_

_"Exactly."_

_"What if you could find a roommate who was a scientist and already familiar and comfortable with your ways?" _

_"That would be ideal." Sheldon remarked as he started sorting through the comic books scattered across the coffee table. "If a person like that existed, I would sign on, no further questions asked."_

_"Great." Amy said with a broad smile. "Here I am."_

_"Wait. Here who is where?" Sheldon looked puzzled and his forehead wrinkled up as he tried to fathom her sudden statement. _

_"Me. Aren't I your perfect roommate?"_

_"Umm…" Sheldon was lost for words, as he searched for a way to let her down easily, Amy continued to press her case._

_"Think about it, Sheldon. I'm not a stranger, we're intellectually compatible, I'm willing to chauffeur you around town, and your personality quirks which others find abhorrent or rage-inducing, I find cute as a button. What do you think?"_

_"Um…"_

_"Tell me one reason why this isn't a fantastic idea."_

_"Um…"_

_"See? You can't." Amy rose from the armchair and practically skipped down the hallway. "I'm gonna go see if Leonard's room is big enough for my water bed."_

_"Um…" Again, he could find nothing to say. _

_"Amy, are you worried that us living together might take the mystery out of our relationship?" Sheldon asked as they sat down to dinner that evening._

_"No." Amy replied, seeming perfectly content as she sat back to watch Sheldon eat._

_"Yeah, why would you?" Sheldon turned back to his Chinese food, his complicated order that Amy had got perfect in every detail. "You can't live here."_

_"What? Why? Is it the message?" Amy's excited face crumpled, was Sheldon breaking up with her because she had taken the trouble to script out a perfectly balanced outgoing voicemail message from the both of them? "I only used urban slang to sound tough so people wouldn't break in."_

_"It's not the message."_

_"Well, what is it then? I did everything just the way you like it." Amy's face turned sad and Sheldon leant forward in his spot as he spoke._

_"You did." Sheldon reassured her, and jumped back when Amy suddenly started yelling at him._

_"Then what the hell, Sheldon? We have been going out for over two years, and I've been nothing but patient with you, I watch your dopey space movies, I signed your ridiculous contracts." Amy was pacing up and down the rug in the living room. "I even stopped wearing lip gloss because you said it made my mouth look too slippery!" She strode over to Sheldon and stopped right in front of him. "I am the best girlfriend you're ever gonna have. You give me one good reason why I can't live here."_

_"It's Penny's fault." Sheldon blurted out as he pointed toward the door. _

_"What?" At first Amy thought that it meant that Sheldon was concealing the fact that he had hidden feelings for her bestie, and she was devastated._

_"She doesn't wanna live with Leonard, so he has to come live here again. She's the snake in our garden, she's the reason we can't be happy." Amy left Sheldon sitting on the couch as she stormed across the hallway to pound her fist against the door to 4B._

_"Hey, Ames." Penny greeted her with a cheerful smile as she opened her front door, glad to see someone else's face, someone that wasn't Leonard anyway._

_"Yeah, 'Hey Ames' nothing. I was all set to move in with Sheldon and now I hear I can't because you don't wanna live with Leonard!"_  
><em>"What?" Leonard appeared from behind Penny and stared at his girlfriend with a hurt expression on his face.<em>

_"Sheldon, what did you say?" Penny strode across the hallway shouting for Sheldon through the open doorway._

_"I said the truth. You don't wanna live with Leonard and you know it."_

_"Since when don't you want to live with me?" Leonard wanted to know and Penny sighed heavily._

_"Oh, don't get all huffy. You're the one who decided to move in without even asking me whether I was ready."_

_"I think we should talk about that." Sheldon agreed, wanting to move the shouting session away from why he didn't want Amy to move into his apartment._

_"And since you love the truth so much; why don't you tell Amy you don't wanna live with her instead of blaming it on me?" Penny shouted back at Sheldon, ignoring Amy's gasp of surprise. _

_"I thought we were talking about the other thing." Sheldon looked at Penny, and didn't look in Amy's direction at all. _

_"You're a coward." Amy accused him as she walked around Penny and Leonard to confront Sheldon._

_"Well, the evidence does support that." Sheldon agreed and Penny left the guys standing in the hallway, calling behind her shoulder._

_"Come on Amy. Let's go drink wine and talk about what jerks our boyfriends are." The two women headed into Penny's apartment, slamming the door shut behind them._

"Ouch, that was harsh…" Susan said as Amy finished telling her tale. "Sheldon really tried to blame it all on Penny? How long have the two of you been going out together now?"

"Nearly four years…and believe me I was pretty close to giving up on him a time or two. I knew that it wasn't going to be easy trying to have a relationship with someone so determined to keep himself closed off from everything and everyone…but a couple of things lead me to believe that he was worth waiting for." Amy pulled the last of the vials toward her and started checking them off the list.

"Like what, come on Amy you can't just leave me hanging like that!" Susan protested, and Amy gave a wry chuckle as she saw the woman practically bouncing up and down on her stool in excitement.

"You kind of remind me of my best friend, Penny the way that you want to know every single little intimate detail. Are you sure you won't be late meeting Daniel? I mean, the details of my relationship with Sheldon are hardly scandalous compared to some of the juicy gossip that floats around the cafeteria…our love life is hardly comparable to a romance novel."

"Yeah, but you said you kept hanging in there so there must have been something he did that changed your mind. I need details Amy!"

"Very well, but remember that I did warn you that you may find it a little on the tame side… It was our first Valentine's Day as a proper couple, even though we had been dating for a couple of years; and I had hoped to make it a special evening…"

_"Hello." Amy greeted her boyfriend quietly as he opened the door to apartment 4A dressed in a shirt and tie with a dark blue suit jacket over a paler blue pair of trousers._

_"Helllo." He responded just as quietly, noting that Amy hadn't appeared to dress up for their evening out._

_"Happy Valentine's Day." Amy murmured with a small smile and Sheldon stepped back from the door to allow her entrance._

_"Okay." He nodded, but offered no other response in return. In his opinion Valentine's Day was highly overrated and something that he subjected himself to as a willing partner as per their Relationship Agreement. "Shall we go to dinner?" He said as he glanced down at his wristwatch, Amy had informed him a few days ago that their reservations were for seven thirty and it was rapidly approaching seven fifteen. The reservations had been hard to come by and he knew how much Amy enjoyed the romantic trappings that the rest of the world deemed necessary for the foolish quasi-holiday. _

_"Hang on." Amy said as she brushed past Sheldon to step further into the apartment. "As you know, I had planned a traditional evening of romance and gifts."_

_"Yes, and as you know, I planned to pretend to enjoy it." Sheldon replied with a sardonic half smile. "I've been working on this facial expression all day." He faked another half-smile, which to Amy's mind looked nothing like his proper smile, which he only offered up in small measures._

_"And I appreciate your effort, but upon contemplation…" Amy smiled softly at her boyfriend as she removed her purse from where it was strapped across her shoulder and set it down on the chair. "I decided I was being selfish. So, I cancelled our dinner reservations and came up with an even better way to celebrate Valentine's Day." She slowly approached Sheldon who was still waiting patiently by the door._

_"What is that?" He asked with the slightest of twitches that betrayed his anxiety._

_"By doing none of it." Amy announced, "No dinner, no romance, no gifts." She waved her hands in the air as if erasing the very thought out of existence. "We stay here, order a pizza and watch one of your beloved Star War Trek things." Amy crossed over to the couch and looked over at her boyfriend, watching his facial expression and posture change until he was her beloved nerdy geek once again._

_"Really?" Sheldon couldn't believe his ears, Amy Farrah Fowler was truly turning out to be the most remarkable of girlfriends._

_"Well, that's what you'd love isn't it?" Amy asked softly._

_"More than anything!" Sheldon exclaimed and Amy smiled, relaxing back against the soft leather cushions._

_"Well, then, that's what we're gonna do." Amy patted the cushion on Sheldon's spot in invitation and shifted herself slightly over so that she didn't stray onto his section of the couch in any way. _

_"Well, I don't know what to say." Sheldon stuttered as he finally closed the apartment door and turned to face Amy, waiting patiently on the couch. "This is the most thoughtful gift that anyone's ever given me." Sheldon crossed the room and sat down next to Amy on the couch, "And that's including an amazing gift I gave myself earlier today." He waved at a picture hanging on the wall, which was actually purchased by his assistant Alex as a potential Valentine's gift for Amy – a signed print by Santiago Ramon y Cajal depicting a hand drawing of brain cells. _

_"I'm your girlfriend, that's my job." Amy smiled as she looked over at Sheldon's smiling face, his lovely natural smile making his blue eyes sparkle and shine. "I know gift-giving puts pressure on you, so whatever you got me, you can return." Sheldon thought about it for a moment and then made a decision._

_"No." He stated simply, "No, after everything you didn't do for me tonight, I want you to have it." Sheldon slipped his hand into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a piece of folded paper. _

_"What's this?" Amy asked as he handed her the paper, Sheldon nodded and urged her to open it._

_"Read it."_

_"'Sheldon Cooper, Caltech University employee information'?" Amy read out with a little wrinkle of confusion on her face. Sheldon tapped the paper slightly and pointed her in the right direction._

_"At the bottom."_

_"'In case of emergency, please contact Amy Farrah Fowler.'" Amy's breath hitched a little as she read out her name handwritten in Sheldon's characteristic scrawl. "And there's my phone number. This is the most beautiful gift you could've ever given me." _

_"Well, I thought if I ever have a stroke or a kidney stone - who would I want to share that with?"_

_"And you picked me." Amy whispered with tears of joy shining in her emerald green eyes._

_"It's like you said, you're my girlfriend."_

_"Oh, Sheldon." Amy couldn't contain herself any longer, and threw herself over the couch to enfold Sheldon into a warm hug; he suffered in silence for a few moments, before muttering out - _

_"Okay, stop ruining Valetine's Day and order my pizza."_

"Buzzkill!" Susan spluttered out, and Amy grinned in response.

"I did tell you that it wasn't worthy of a romance novel; but oh, no you insisted on hearing it. For me, though it was the first sign that Sheldon was thinking about our long term future. Filling in that form with my details was a huge step for him to take and it only made me love him more." Amy looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly a quarter past five. "You'd better get a move on if you want to meet Daniel on time."

"I can't go now…there has to be something more to your story. I mean, I've seen the way the two of you text each other all of the time and you're sitting opposite each other in the cafeteria! It's like you don't like talking to each other in front of your friends – is there an issue there?"

"Not really, Sheldon is still very shy about showing his emotions when others are present; it was in the first draft of our Relationship Agreement, no Public Displays of Affection…that's kind of slipped out of the window a little as we often hold hands or snuggle on the couch during movie nights; but it's a habit that it hard to break and it's kinda nice knowing that we have our own special conversations. Once upon a time things did get a little dicey and I thought about calling the whole thing off…It's strange the things that will set you off…"

"Go on, I've got a little time left. What happened?" Susan ignored the rest of the vials still to be checked off and gave Amy her undivided attention.


	10. Chapter 10

Amy checked her phone for any signs of a message from Sheldon and when she saw the screen was just as blank as it was an hour ago, she swivelled around on her stool to face her lab partner. Susan was leaning with her chin propped on her hands as if she were waiting for a something monumental to occur.

"Do you remember last summer when I had booked a couple of days off because I was supposed to be having a girly weekend in Las Vegas?"

"Vaguely…I think I recall you saying something about it when Dr. Gunderson wanted you to go over to Sweden for a couple of weeks, and you said that you couldn't because you were on the no-fly list."

"Well, I'd got pulled out of line for a pat down search and I accidentally broke the TSA agent's nose with my elbow. Needless to say my girlies were not in the most favourable of moods, so we headed back to Sheldon's place so that Bernadette could catch a ride home with Howard. The guys were planning a weekend of Dungeons & Dragons followed by a Sci-Fi movie marathon."

"That's some kind of fantasy board game isn't it? I think little brother used to play that with his friends growing up."

"Some kids never grow out of it, trust me. Anyway, the guys persuaded us to stick around and join in the game and everything was going fine until Penny made everyone drink one too many of her magic potions…double strength margarita's to the mortal world and things got a little too personal for my liking and I kinda flipped out…"

"Again, tell me everything and don't skip the small stuff!"

"Okay…it was a couple of hours into the game, Howard was acting as Dungeon Master which was really cool as he did loads of celebrity impressions…Al Pacino and Christopher Walken were the favourites of the evening…Penny and Bernadette were happily sloshed and we were all taking turns rolling the dice…."

_ "Come on, Mama wants a pair of dead ogres." Bernadette stepped up to the board with a fierce look of determination on her petite face._

_"Seventeen!" Howard exclaimed, "The larger ogre is dead." Everyone cheered and rose to their feet, doing a little happy dance. "The other ogre says: 'You killed my brother, now Ogre Thanksgiving is ruined.'" He affected the same rasp as before, but with a sad undertone._

_"That is amazing." Sheldon remarked to Amy. "He made me care about the ogre."_

_"All right, Amy, there's one ogre left." Leonard explained as Amy picked up the dice and prepared to roll. "Take him out."_

_"Okay." _

_"Pretend he's that TSA agent. Come on." Penny offered words of encouragement as Amy stepped up to the board. _

_"Nineteen! This is turning out to be even better than Vegas!" Amy exclaimed as everyone started cheering again._

_"Ha, ha. No, it's not." Penny clapped along with the others, but her face told the true story._

_Another pitcher of margarita's and a few hours later, the game was nearly at an end. Howard had just finished describing the dragon's potential demise in an affected Christopher Walken voice and Leonard leant forward in his chair to look eagerly at Amy._

_"Amy, it's your turn. We need one more hit. Finish him off!"_

_"Okay, here we go…Fifteen…"_

_"It's a hit, the dragon collapses to the ground!" Howard confirmed in his normal voice, cheers rang out only to be interrupted by Sheldon who wanted more of Howard's celebrity impressions._

_"Wait…wait…and says…" Sheldon looked over at Howard with a raised eyebrow, Howard sighed but mimicked Christopher Walken again as the dragon's life slipped away._

_"Mother? Is that you? Your little boy is coming home." _

_"I don't know about you guys, but I've been through the emotional wringer tonight." Sheldon pressed his hand against his chin and glanced around the apartment. _

_"This may be the potion talking, but you are one fine-ass Dungeon Master." Bernadette leant over and ran her hand through Howard's hair and cooed into his ear. _

_"Oh yeah, when we get home, I'm gonna take you on a whole different adventure." Howard waggled his eyebrows suggestively at his wife and she giggled in response. _

_"Another quest by Wolowitz? Count me in." Sheldon announced from the couch in glee and Amy leant a little closer to explain Bernadette's suddenly narrow eyed expression._

_"Sheldon, they're talking about sex." Amy said quietly._

_"Oh, then I'm out." He replied quickly and turned his attention back to his clipboard. _

_"Ooh, I have an idea…" Penny chirped up, "Since it's not happening anytime soon… why doesn't your character," She pointed at Amy, "And your character…" Penny then pointed at Sheldon, "…do it in the game." _

_"Ooh!" Bernadette cooed and nudged Howard to join in. "Come on, back me up here."_  
><em>"Oh, Ooh!"<em>

_"Okay, I cast a love spell on Sheldon and Amy." Bernadette announced after taking another sip of the margarita potion._

_"Ooh! Sorry, I thought we were gonna do that…" Leonard started to coo and then stopped when he realised that no one else was joining in. Howard rolled the dice and announced in a deep voice; "The love spell takes effect. When Sheldon looks at Amy she is the most beautiful…. half-orc he's ever seen; and he's overcome with a desire to rip her armour off and gaze fondly at her four hairy breasts. When Amy sees Sheldon, he looks…well, just like Sheldon because apparently she's into that." Howard looked over to see Sheldon and Amy sitting unnaturally still on the couch. "What do you do?" He asked, and everyone looked up in surprise as Amy suddenly rose up from the couch._

_"I don't like this." She muttered tearfully and bolted down the hallway towards Sheldon's room, slamming the door behind her._

_"Amy. Amy. Amy." Amy sat on Sheldon's bed and heard his repeated pattern of knocking on the door. _

_"What?" She called out, and kept her face averted as Sheldon quietly opened his bedroom door and stepped inside. _

_"I've never knocked on my own door before." Sheldon said quietly as he closed the door behind him. "That was a wild ride."_

_"You don't have to come in here and cheer me up." Amy said softly as she continued to sit on the edge of Sheldon's bed, staring at the wall. _

_"Thank you. Would you mind telling everyone else that? Because they sure think otherwise."_

_"I'll tell you what they think." Amy said as she turned around on the bed to face Sheldon. "They think our relationship is a joke!"_

_"Well, I don't think our relationship is a joke." Sheldon said as he crossed the room to stand near Amy._

_"Sheldon…are we ever going to have an intimate relationship?" Amy asked the forbidden question and could see that she had taken her boyfriend completely by surprise as he stared at her without blinking for quite some time._

_"Oh, my, that's an uncomfortable topic." He finally said, before coming closer to perch next to Amy on the side of his bed. "Amy…before I met you, I never had any interest in being intimate with anyone."_

_"And now?"_

_"And now what?"_

_"Do you have any interest now?" Amy blurted out in frustration, honestly it was sometimes like talking with a child!_

_"I have not ruled it out." Sheldon admitted in a shy tone._

_"Wow. Talk dirty to me." _

_"I know it doesn't seem like it to you, but for me, what we have…is extremely intimate." Sheldon moved microscopically closer on the bed and gazed into Amy's eyes. _

_"I guess I know that." She finally said, "It's just…part of me wants more."_

_"More?" Sheldon said incredulously, edging back to his original position on the bed. "I mean look at us. It's only been three years, here we are in bed together." He finally managed to raise a small smile from Amy and she relaxed her stiff posture a little. _

_"Come on. Let's go back out there."_

_"Well, no, hold on." Sheldon placed his hand on Amy's arm as she went to rise from the bed; at his fleeting touch, she sat back down again. "My elven magic-user and your half-orc warrior did have a love spell cast on them." Sheldon dropped his eyes away from Amy as his fingers started tracing a random pattern on his bedspread. "We wouldn't really be playing the game right if we didn't see that through."_

_"Okay." Amy said slowly, and Sheldon got up to seek out another set of dice and a hardback book to roll them onto. _

_"I believe that, uh, we just killed a dragon. While the others pillage the corpse I lead you to a secluded area where I attempt to remove your leather armour." Sheldon rolled the dice and looked up at Amy. "It comes off._

_"Oh…" Amy pressed her fingers against her lips._

_"What do you do?" Sheldon asked, Amy looked at Sheldon and thought about what the appropriate response could be under the circumstances._

_"I…kiss you on the…lips."_

_"I kiss you back on the…" Sheldon rolled the dice and looked at the number, before nodding. "…lips as well. Your turn."_

_"I remove your armour. What do you do?" _

_"I erotically caress your…" Sheldon rolled and they both looked down to see a six. "…nose."_

_"Keep rolling." Amy ordered firmly, and surprisingly enough Sheldon did just that. They were interrupted by a knock on the door._

_"Hey, you guys have been in there for a while. You doing okay?" Leonard called through the closed door._

_"We're fine. Thank you." Sheldon replied, keeping both eyes on the dice as he prepared to roll again._

_"Okay, we just wanted to say we feel bad…" Penny started to say and Amy yelled out in frustration._

_"Go away! Sheldon is nibbling on my…" Sheldon rolled the die and both he and Amy waited with bated breath for the result. "Fourteen! Yes!"_

"I take it fourteen was somewhere good?" Susan asked as she watched Amy's face flush a little in remembrance.

"You might say that." Amy replied, glancing over at the clock again and noticing that it was now a quarter to six. She slipped off her stool and pulled off her white lab coat. "Come on, Susan. It's time for you to meet Daniel. Enough of my romance, or lack of it, we've got to get you to meet your prince charming."

"But…that can't be the end of it! How did you get from the no PDA to where you are now?" Susan protested as Amy firmly steered her out of the lab, making sure that everything was secure and the lights were switched off before locking the door behind them.

"You mean, me in Pasadena and my boyfriend a hundred miles away?" Amy quipped back, as she swung her purse over her shoulder and started to walk down the dimly lit corridors toward the rear parking lot.

"Very funny…I meant you've both seemed to be happier this year than I've ever seen you. I know that Sheldon's had a rough time over these last couple of months but before that you seemed to be getting along great…and don't think I didn't see you holding hands in the car park when you were driving him on your date nights!"

"Yes, well…things started to move forward quite rapidly after Valentine's Day this year. After last year, I felt that I had to 'up my game' a little, and so I booked a romantic weekend away on a train to Napa Valley. I thought that it would be something that Sheldon would enjoy as he is quite the train enthusiast."

"Uh oh, from the look on your face, something tells me that things didn't quite go according to plan." Susan caught the brief look of almost despair that crossed Amy's face and she felt Amy shiver a little in remembrance.

"I'll tell you what happened…Eric!"


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: One more short chapter from Amy's viewpoint before the big re-union steps up a gear...**

"Who the heck is Eric?" Susan stopped at Amy's car and leant back against the driver's door, preventing Amy from getting inside. "Not until you tell me what happened on the train."

"Come on Susan, you'll be late meeting Daniel and Sheldon's promised to Skype me at seven." Amy sighed as Susan's face grew even more determined. "Okay, but it will have to be a condensed version…Eric was a fellow enthusiast that Sheldon met on the train…and subsequently spent the entire evening with instead of me. Happy now? Can I go home?"

"Park it, sister! Condensed version, yes…completely abridged, not acceptable. Start again from when you got on the train, who is this Eric and how did Sheldon end up spending a romantic Valentine's dinner with a complete stranger?"

"Okay, you asked for it…"

_"What do you think, Sheldon?" Amy asked, watching Sheldon's face closely for any signs that would reveal his innermost feelings. She felt her heart go pitter patter as he turned around and beamed a full on smile at her._

_"It's magnificent. This is going to be the best Valentine's Day ever."_

_"I'm so glad you like it." Amy smiled as Sheldon continued to walk through the dining car, he looked over his shoulder at his girlfriend._

_"I'm prepared to say I love it, as soon as I confirm there are no hobos aboard." Sheldon smiled again and Amy felt that she had at last managed to get an emotional response from her otherwise robotic boyfriend, rather like the android Data from his favourite Star Trek franchise. _

_"Do you have any questions?" Their waiter asked as he finished reciting the menu to the table._

_"I do." Sheldon raised his hand eagerly. "Does this train car have the original link-and-pin coupler or the Miller Hook and platform?"_

_"I meant about the food, sir." Just as Sheldon was about to ask the same question again only phrased slightly differently, the man seated behind them chipped in._

_"Fun fact; it's neither. They actually use the AAR type 'E' coupler. If you listen carefully when the locomotive disconnects, you'll hear the characteristic click, whoosh, thunk of the knuckle." _

_"Get out of town!" Sheldon playfully slapped the stranger on the arm, overwhelmed by the excitement of meeting a fellow enthusiast. _

_"Fun fact; I'm gonna jump off this train." Howard muttered to Bernadette as he took a large swallow of wine from his glass._

_"Fun fact; I might join you." Responded Amy from the opposite side of the table, she and Howard clinked glasses in a toast as they listened to more railway talk from Sheldon and the other guy. By the time the first course was ready to be served, Sheldon had abandoned his own table to join Eric at his._

_"Do another one, do another one!" Sheldon begged as Eric mimicked yet another train sound. "My God, it's like there's a train in your mouth." _

_"See if you guys can guess this one…Bang! Splat! Thud!" Amy mimicked holding a gun to her forehead and pulling the trigger, before resting her head on the table. "I should have guessed this was a bad idea from the very beginning. Why do I even try?"_

_"I'm gonna fix this right now." Bernadette said as she lay her napkin on the table and started to rise from her seat._

_"Okay. Just make it look like an accident." Howard patted her hand, recognising the gleam of battle in his wife's eyes. Bernadette stalked over to where Sheldon was deep in conversation with Eric and stood tapping her foot, waiting for either man to notice her._

_"Excuse me. You are at Valentine's dinner with your girlfriend. Now get back over there and be with her!" Bernadette snapped at Sheldon and he backed away from the fury in her voice._

_"You're right," Sheldon nodded, seeing that he was in the wrong. "That was insensitive of me." He rose from his seat and turned to face Eric. "I have to go back to my table now. You should join us."_

_"All right." _

_"Great, now there's two of 'em." Bernadette sighed as she watched as Eric pulled a spare chair up to the table set for an intimate dinner for four. _

_Through the starter and the salad, Eric and Sheldon kept up their conversation completely ignoring the rest of the table._

_"Amy, what are the odds we run into this guy?" Sheldon turned to ask as the waiter came back with yet another bottle of wine after seeing Howard's frantic signal._

_"Better than you think." The waiter murmured as he started pouring the liquid into Amy's glass; when she tapped on the edge of the bottle he smiled faintly as he filled her glass almost to the brim._

_"You know, if you ask nicely, they'll let you visit the engine room." Eric pointed out to Sheldon, who started bouncing in his seat like an over excited puppy being offered a bone._

_"I never want this day to end." Sheldon said as he turned in his seat to face Amy, who managed to summon up a small smile to appease him._

_"It's feeling like it never will." She replied drolly, taking a large swallow of her wine, as she turned back it was to see Sheldon disappearing down the corridor toward the engine room, Eric at his heels._

_"You okay?" Howard asked Amy quietly as he caught her looking over her shoulder in hopes of Sheldon returning before the train reached Napa._

_"Why?" Amy replied sarcastically as she took another large gulp of her wine. "Because my boyfriend is off playing choo choo with some weirdo?"_

_"Well, to be fair…they're both weirdo's." Howard replied, running his fingers down the stem of his glass and narrowly missed being kicked in the shin by his wife for his indelicate remark._

_"I don't know what made me think tonight would be any different." Amy sighed heavily as she swirled the dark ruby liquid in her crystal glass._

_"Just the fact that you got him up here still says a lot." Bernadette remarked, trying to cheer her friend up a little. "To be honest, I bet Howie 200 bucks it wasn't gonna happen."_

_"Yeah, gonna collect my big ass Lego R2D2 as soon as we get home." Howard rubbed his hands together gleefully at the thought of getting his hands on his new toy._

_"See? It's not just Sheldon. They're all idiots." All Howard could do was shrug in agreement; he knew that Bernadette was the biggest influence in his life and he was thankful every day for whatever deity had brought her into his life. Amy looked over at the couple gazing lovingly into each other's eyes and pushed back from the table; only to find Sheldon and Eric had returned and were blocking her escape path._

_"Amy, guess what? The conductor said as soon as he gets off work he can come back to the bed-and-breakfast and play his banjo for us." Sheldon beamed his smile over at Amy, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back._

_"Sheldon, I need to speak to you in private. Right now!" Amy got to her feet, throwing her napkin over her barely touched meal._

_"There's a car with a glass roof. Want to go look at the stars?" Howard whispered to Bernadette and she gently ran a hand through his sideburns._

_"Oh, that sounds so romantic!"_

_"Give it a rest!" Amy snapped at the lovey dovey couple and they got the hint to make their quick getaway. "Why are you still here?" Amy asked Eric, who was standing in between herself and Sheldon._

_"Excuse me? I think you're being a little rude." Sheldon looked at his girlfriend in utter amazement, who was this creature that had suddenly appeared from the being that once housed a small, timid scientist?_

_"I'm being rude? You've been rude to me this entire evening."_

_"How is that possible? I've hardly spoken to you since we got on the train…" Sheldon's voice trailed off as he realised exactly what he had just said. "What is your problem?"_

_"It's Valentine's Day. We're supposed to be having a romantic weekend." Neither one of them were aware of Eric sidling away as he sensed the friction rising between the couple._

_"Oh, really? Because I remember you saying that this trip was going to be something we could both enjoy. Did you mean that or were you just trying to trick me?"_

_"Fine, it's true. I deserve romance, and I didn't know how else to make it happen." Amy went to leave the dining cart only to find Sheldon holding onto her arm to keep her in place._

_"You want romance? I'll give you romance…" Sheldon reached over to pick up his as yet untouched glass of wine and took a hefty swallow. "Wine…mmm…urgh! Grape juice that burns…" He held her firmly in place as he stared directly at her. "Now we gaze deeply into each other's eyes…ha! You blinked, I win!"_

_"Sheldon…" Amy protested as Sheldon continued to make a mockery out of everything that she held as her deepest heart's desire._

_"Let's see. What's next? Kissing's romantic." He suddenly leant over and pressed his lips firmly against Amy's; intending it only to be a quick peck…long seconds passed and Sheldon found himself savouring the feel of her soft lips underneath his own. He found himself stepping closer until he was pressed up against her soft body, and his hand moved down to grasp her hip holding her firmly against him. Sheldon finally tore his mouth away when the need for air overtook him._

_"That was nice…" Amy spoke softly and Sheldon blinked and nodded in response._

_"Good." His voice sounded huskier than usual and he wasn't quite sure what to do next. "Um…the conductor said if I come back to the engine room, he'd show me how to bring the train through a crossing."_

_"Okay, have fun." Amy nodded and took a step away from Sheldon and was surprised when he took a step closer instead of moving away._

_"Do you want to come with me?" Sheldon couldn't keep his eyes away from Amy, he felt an instinctive need to remain in close contact and smiled happily when she nodded in response. He held out his hand in invitation and felt her smaller hand curl around his fingers as they turned to walk towards the engine room. _

_"Hey guys, wait up!" Eric's familiar tone followed them through the train car and he was right behind them all the way; somehow though it didn't seem to matter quite as much as it did before._

"Holy cow! He actually kissed you in the middle of a train car? You're not kidding me are you?" Susan's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as she realised that Amy was indeed telling the truth. "I need to get tickets on that thing next year; if it can make the mighty Dr. Cooper fall at your feet, imagine what it could do to a normal person. Daniel is gonna have the best Valentine's ever next year!" Susan looked down at her watch and freaked when she saw it had gone six. "I'd better get home, before he starts to think that I've changed my mind. See you Monday?"

"Not Monday, I've booked a couple of days off as Sheldon is due home then and I want to spend a little time catching up with him." Amy checked that she had her phone and purse before she climbed into her car and started the engine. They waved goodbye as the security barrier rose up to let them out of the secure car park; Amy turning left toward Glendale and Susan right toward downtown Pasadena.

Amy switched on the radio and started humming along to the music as she drove along thinking about Sheldon all the way home.


	12. Chapter 12

"So, you're finally gonna do it?" Penny walked back over to 4A and found Sheldon flipping through the clothes in his closet, searching for the perfect outfit for his reconciliation with Amy.

"I beg your pardon?" Sheldon stopped perusing to stare at his roommates fiancée.

"I didn't mean **it**, it, Sheldon…although if you did, it wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it?" Penny nudged him out of the way to start rifling through his clothes herself, "Okay, that white shirt with the narrow grey silk tie…oh, yeah…those dark grey pants and some dress shoes. You've actually got some pretty nice clothes in here Sheldon."

"You should know, you were with me when I bought them." Sheldon took the shirt over to the ironing board he had set up in the corner and flicked the switch onto steam.

"Really? Oh well, if you say so." Penny admired her own good taste and leant against the door frame watching Sheldon meticulously iron the creases out of the shirt. "What I meant was, you're finally ready to make a commitment to a real relationship with Amy."

"Penny…I already am in a real relationship with Amy." Sheldon looked up in surprise at her strange choice of words. "I see no real difference in our relationship than any of yours…I know every little thing about her and she the same for me, we are probably closer than any other pair pond in our social circle and we didn't just because we didn't get there via the bedroom doesn't mean that it's not extremely intimate."

"Penny, are you bothering Sheldon again? I told you to leave him alone…" Leonard came looking for Penny and wasn't a bit surprised to see her harassing Sheldon for more information.

"I wasn't bothering him, tell him Sheldon! I was just thinking that it's nice that he's finally acting on what that lovely psychic told him to do months ago." Penny looked between Sheldon and her fiancé, who were both wearing the same dismissive expression on their faces. "Don't mock…Sheldon learnt a few important things that night."

"Really, Penny?"

"Yes, really. For one thing, he learnt when to keep his mouth shut and listen, and I got him to try a different food as well."

"Okay, now I'm paying attention." Leonard uncrossed his arms over his chest and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, pulling Penny down to sit next to him as they both ignored Sheldon's heavy sigh as Penny began to speak.

"Okay…it was Anything Can Happen Thursday and we'd just come across Bernadette and Amy having drinks in a bar when they had both told us they couldn't make it out…."

_"__So, we're just randomly choosing a restaurant without researching it online?" Sheldon followed Penny and Leonard as they walked the streets of downtown Pasadena searching for inspiration for their Anything Can Happen Thursday meal._

_"__Yup." Penny replied with a grin._

_"__Great. This is how Anything Can Happen Thursday turns into It Won't Stop Coming Out Friday." Sheldon muttered as they crossed the street, scanning for possibilities. _

_"__Hey, how about that Asian fusion place?" Leonard pointed at a restaurant on the corner of the next street over and Sheldon sighed unhappily._

_"__Fusion and Asians." He turned to look at Leonard who merely shrugged. "I'm trying not t think about science." _

_"__What the hell!" Penny exclaimed as she turned around to scan the windows behind them. Leonard and Sheldon walked over to join her as she stood staring into the window of a bar. "What…she's not working late!"_

_"__And Amy doesn't look sick." Sheldon remarked as he peered through the smaller side window._

_"__Why would they lie to us?"_

_"__That's a good question." Sheldon replied as he started knocking on the window. "Amy and Bernadette. Amy and Bernadette. Amy and Bernadette." Amy and Bernadette looked up at the familiar knock sequence and shared a look of despair as Sheldon continued to shout through the window. "Why did you lie to us?" _

_"__You're not working late. Why did you lie to me?" Penny addressed Bernadette as she, Leonard and Sheldon walked through the bar to stand at the small table occupied by the bubbly blonde and the bespectacled brunette._

_"__And Amy, you told me you were sick, but you look just as pale and tired as always." Sheldon added, as he looked down at his guilty looking girlfriend._

_"__I'm sorry, I just needed a break from hearing you obsess about what to do after string theory." Amy looked up at Sheldon, hating to hurt his feelings but needing to show him how much his attitude was affecting her as well._

_"__We kind of just wanted one night where we didn't have to hear about how miserable you are making this movie." Bernadette muttered as she fiddled with the base of her wine glass._

_"__But none of that means we don't love you." Amy added, looking from Sheldon to Penny and then back again._

_"__I haven't been complaining that much about the movie, have I?" Penny asked, looking at her four companions. _

_"__I also love you." Leonard chimed in quickly, instantly knowing that he had chosen the completely wrong thing to say as Penny grabbed Sheldon's arm and dragged him away from the table._

_"__Well you know what? Maybe I need a break from all of you. Come on, Sheldon."_

_"__Where are we going?"_

_"__We're gonna have Anything Can Happen Thursday, you're gonna tell me all about your science stuff and I'm gonna complain about my movie, and we're gonna support each other because that's what friends do."_

_"__Okay. 'Cause if I had to pick now, I'd probably go with dark matter because…"_

_"__Shut up."_

"Okay, so you told him that you were gonna share your gripes together and then basically told him to 'shut up'? Not nice, Penny; remember our little conversation about trying to be a better friend?" Leonard interrupted Penny's tale to nudge her in the side.

"That was for Sheldon, not me. Anyway, I got him to eat at the Fusion place, he had Chinese noodles with Korean barbecue in a taco."

"I beg to differ…that is what you made me order but I certainly did not eat it." Sheldon interjected and Penny shrugged.

"You have to admit that I got you in there; if we hadn't have eaten in there you would never met the psychic…"

_"__Oh, I see our next stop." Penny squealed excitedly as she tugged on the sleeve of Sheldon's jacket._

_"__You can't be serious. If I wanted to waste my time on nonsense, I'd follow Leonard on Instagram."_

_"__No, come on, tonight we are trying new things." Penny opened the door to the store and Sheldon followed her reluctantly inside, wrinkling his nose up immediately._

_"__Oh, that's a lot of incense. Or someone set a hippy on fire." He and Penny took a seat in the small waiting room as she pulled out her phone to let Leonard know where they were. They were shown into a dimly lit room soon after arriving and Sheldon had to bend his head to clear the low overhang. _

_"__I don't mean to be rude or discourteous," Sheldon said as he and Penny sat down at the small round table, "But before we begin, I'd just like to say there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support clairvoyance of any kind. Which means, and again, no insult intended, that you're a fraud, your profession is a swindle, and, uh, your livelihood is dependent on the gullibility of stupid people. Again, no offence."_

_"__All right, Sheldon, just ask your question." Penny interrupted his passionate rambling and Sheldon closed his eyes as he folded his arms on the table. Opening his eyes again, he looked over at the psychic and addressed her directly._

_"__Okay. I just did. What was it?"_

_"__Oh, for God's sake! Look, he's a physicist who's trying to figure out what his next field of study should be."_

_"__For your information, I was asking about the next Star Trek movie."_

_"__Okay, I can answer that one, I'll be bored."_

_"__All right, why don't we begin?" The psychic sighed a little as she closed her eyes and attempted to clear the negative energy out of the room. "Your spirit guides are telling me that there's a woman in your life you're having problems with."_

_"__That's an easy guess. I'm clearly an annoying person and have problems with both genders."_

_"__Yes, you clearly are." The psychic opened her eyes and looked over at Sheldon, agreeing with his statement entirely. She closed her eyes again and attempted another contact. "But I'm seeing a specific woman that you're in a romantic relationship with."_

_"__Oh, oh, here we go." Penny leant closer to the table, clasping her hands together in expectation._

_"__Does she have dark hair?"_

_"__Yes, yes, your spirit guides are on fire." Penny snapped her fingers and almost yelled out in triumph._

_"__The majority of people have dark hair." Sheldon countered, and turned to address Penny. "Even you, at one time."_

_"__Does she work in a similar field to you?"_

_"__Ha! The opposite. She's a neurobiologist, and I'm a theoretical physicist. My spirit guides can go suck an egg."_

_"__They're telling me that you have difficulty being close with her." The psychic sat with her eyes closed as she waved her hands expressively._

_"__Oh, he does. He so does. What should he do?"_

_"__He should give himself to this relationship. Once he does, all his other pursuits will come into focus." The psychic breathed in deeply and finally opened her eyes._

_"__Sheldon, do you hear that? I mean, Amy is the key to your happiness." Penny turned to Sheldon who didn't look that impressed with the reading._

_"__Exactly. Personally and professionally. Everything will fall into place once you commit to her." The psychic stared directly at Sheldon who remained very still in his chair, a fixed and almost tormented expression on his face._

_"__You know what this is? Yeah, and I reserve this word for those rare instances when it's truly deserved. This is malarkey." Sheldon rose from the chair, scraping it against the floor as he pushed away from the table and almost running out of the store._

_"__Wow, you really struck a nerve. I've never heard him use the 'M' word before." Penny waited for a few seconds, before collecting her bag and hurrying after her friend. _

"Hogwash." Sheldon announced loudly, startling Penny and Leonard out of their reverie.

"Excuse me?"

"Hogwash." Sheldon repeated. "I cannot believe that you would choose to accept anything that charlatan said at face value, it hurts me deeply to think that you would feel that I would put any significance on that drivel spouted out that evening."

"But Sheldon…" Penny protested, and Sheldon held up his hand to prevent her from continuing.

"No, Penny. I was already battling my growing feelings for Amy and going through a very trying time in my professional life – what you put me through with that charlatan did nothing to ease my discomfort, it only served to make things worse for me. I will not let you belittle what I am trying to accomplish tonight by suggesting that drivel had anything to do with my actions then or now. Is that perfectly clear?" Sheldon raised his voice slightly in order that Penny understood the depth of meaning behind his ire.

"Okay." Penny said quietly, she hadn't realised until know how much her little interference had affected Sheldon. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, Sheldon. I know how much Amy means to you now, and I promise to do everything I can to make things work tonight."

"Thank you, Penny. Now, I believe that it's nearly time – shall we have one more rehearsal? I want to make sure that everything goes to plan."

"Sure, buddy." Leonard saw the slight twitch in Sheldon's jaw and knew that he had to be nervous; a lot was riding on this little scheme of Sheldon's and it would be disastrous if anything were to go wrong this late in the game.


	13. Chapter 13

Sheldon, Leonard and Penny walked back into the living room to see that Howard had the keyboard set up and was making some last minute adjustments to the Shelbot programming.

"Nearly set, Sheldon. Who's gonna drive you over so that you can get set up?"

"I'll do it." Emily volunteered. "You guys do your thing here, I have a terrible singing voice anyway and it will give me a chance to get to know Sheldon a little better on the way."

"Well, thank you, Emily. That's very kind of you." Sheldon gave her a slight smile of thanks and then clapped his hands together lightly. "Okay, people." He glanced down at his watch. "It's nearly six o'clock now, Penny has already confirmed that Amy left work a short time ago and is expecting to stay home this evening. We've got time for one more run through before I head over to her apartment with Emily. Howard, do you have the real time video link set up?"

"Check." Howard confirmed with a nod.

"Bernadette, Penny – have you both familiarised yourself with the lyrics?"

"Check." Both ladies scanned the pages one last time and felt confident in their abilities to carry the tune.

"Raj?"

"Double check, although I may need a moment to compose myself…because it's so beautiful…" Raj leant against Emily's side and she stroked his dark hair gently, murmuring quietly in his ear.

"Leonard, have you checked that the MVPD is functioning correctly and that it is suitably attired for the occasion?"

"Sheldon, she's not gonna see the Shelbot! All Amy's gonna see is your face on the screen and think that you are still on a train or in a hotel room a few hundred miles away…Howard's put an overlay on the algorithm so that she thinks she is accepting a Skype call from you." Leonard sighed heavily at the determined look on Sheldon's face and then walked down the hall to retrieve the MVPD. "There, are you happy now?" Leonard revealed that Penny had dressed the device in one of Sheldon's dress shirts and draped a tie around the hanger.

"Most suitable, now I'm going to take a quick shower and get changed; I want to hear that rehearsal people!" Sheldon strode down the hallway as Howard cajoled everyone into taking their places where he had laid tape out onto the floor, marking their positions in order to capture everyone on camera. As Sheldon stepped into the shower he could just make out the melody on the keyboard and then the soft rise of voices behind him. He started humming along under his breath as rinsed off and then jumped out, roughly towelling himself dry before slipping into his robe and scurrying down to his bedroom.

Emerging fully dressed a few minutes later, he appeared back in the living room to whistles and catcalls from Bernadette and Penny.

"Oh, hush!" He waved off their laughter and fiddled with his tie. Penny walked over to straighten it for him.

"You look very nice, sweetie. Leonard's going to carry Shelbot down to Emily's car so that you don't get all dirty. Here's your laptop, Howard's programmed it all in; all you need to is click on the video link icon and you're good to go. Good luck." She pressed a soft kiss against his cheek and then wiped off her faint lipstick mark with her thumb.

"Ready, Sheldon?" Leonard asked as he picked up Shelbot and Sheldon straightened up his shoulders and nodded.

"Ready."

"Good luck!" Raj gave him a thumbs up and Bernadette blew him a kiss as Sheldon followed Leonard and Emily down the stairs and out into the night air. Leonard laid the Shelbot out across the back seat and leant in the open window to squeeze Sheldon's shoulder gently.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright Sheldon."

"You don't know that, Leonard. What if she's changed her mind?"

"Never happen, buddy. Amy loves you and she wants to be with you that will never change." Leonard gave them a little wave as Emily pulled away from the curb and headed toward Glendale.

"Emily, talk to me please. Say something, anything to keep my mind occupied." Sheldon suddenly blurted out after they'd been on the road for a few minutes, his fingers were clenched so tightly together in his lap that his knuckles showed white.

"Okay…Let me see. Oh, I know! Tell me more about what happened just before you left; what was it that tipped you over the edge at the university?" Emily flicked her gaze across to Sheldon who pursed his lips in thought.

"It was a number of things really, I had been feeling the need to move away from string theory for a while and trying to choose a new field of study…I guess it all came to a head when the President called me in for a little chat…"

_"__Hey, buddy." Leonard looked up from his salad to see a sombre looking Sheldon enter the cafeteria._

_"__Hello." Sheldon replied quietly, hovering near the table in two minds whether he wanted to eat or not._

_"__You okay?" Leonard asked as Sheldon slipped into the empty seat._

_"__I just got called into President Siebert's office. The University won't let me switch my field of study to inflationary cosmology. They're forcing me to continue with string theory."_

_"__Why?" Howard asked, all previous joviality from celebrating Raj's night of passion with Emily forgotten in the wake of Sheldon's news._

_"__He said that's why they hired me, it's what my grant was designated for, and that everybody has to do things they don't want to do. He then gave me an example of something he had to do, even though he didn't want to, which was to look at my stupid face."_

_"__That's a rude thing to say…out loud." Leonard said, sharing a sideways glance with Howard._

_"__It's an outrage. Honestly, I'm tempted to leave the University."_

_"__You know, if you're really serious about that, I hear there are some exciting opportunities in home care for the old and fat." Howard leant forward, speaking only in half jest._

_"__Whatever you do, don't make any rash decisions." Leonard, always the voice of reason, leant forward anxious that Sheldon didn't suddenly rush into something only to regret it later._

_"__I don't know. I am really aggravated." Sheldon crossed his arms over his chest, his face chiselled with a mix of supressed anger and anguish._

_"__When I'm feeling low, I have sex with a girl. But that's just me." Raj chimed in and Leonard stifled a laugh as Sheldon just shot him a disgusted look._

_"__Not really helping, Raj." Howard murmured to the astrophysicist, who seemed lost in his own world of sensual remembrance. _

"Okay," Emily said slowly, "That was something I didn't know about Raj, and quite frankly I'm just gonna ignore the fact that I even heard it."

"Please do, it's something I try to forget on a daily basis -darned eidetic memory!"

"So, what did you do next? What happened?"

"It wasn't just that, Leonard and Penny announced their engagement and a few weeks later he said that he was going to make me move out of my own apartment so that he and Penny could take over 4A and I would have to move into 4B."

"You were there first, so it would be your name on the lease. He isn't in a position to make you do anything of the sort."

"I realise that now, but I wasn't thinking too clearly back then. It was just too many changes all at once, and I'm afraid on my last evening with Amy…I treated her rather cruelly, hence my apprehension this evening." Sheldon started twisting his fingers together again, and Emily looked over at his pale face highlighted by the glow of the red stop sign.

"Tell me about it Sheldon, the light is on red and we've got a few miles to go yet. What could you have possibly said or done that would make you think she wouldn't want you anymore?"

"Alright…It was our date night and I'd gone over to Amy's apartment for dinner. Afterwards we were sitting on the couch and she was listening to me vent my frustration with Siebert and the University in general…"

_"__How dare the University force me to go back to string theory?" Sheldon paced the small confines of Amy's living room, lines of frustration etched across his lean face._

_"__They just don't appreciate you." Amy replied quietly from her small kitchenette where she was preparing a drink for them both._

_"__Yeah, and on top of that, Leonard had the audacity to suggest that now he and Penny are engaged, he may not want to live with me anymore."_

_"__Here, I made you some Strawberry Quik." Amy passed Sheldon the tall glass of cold, pink liquid and stood back a little._

_"__I have real problems here, Amy. I can't be mollified with a beverage designed for children." Sheldon sipped from the glass and let out a sigh of appreciation as he sat on the small couch. "Mmmm, yummy."_

_"__You know, this might work out for the best." Amy sat down next to Sheldon and tried to accentuate the positive. "I mean, you're always complaining what a terrible roommate Leonard is. Like how he turns up the thermostat when you're not there."_

_"__Ugh, it's like walking into the Amazon, and not the good Amazon with one-day shipping. The awful one with birds and snakes."_

_"__You hate the sound of all those keys on his key chain."_

_"__Four keys! Who does he think he is, a warden?"_

_"__See? Maybe you'll love living alone."_

_"__I don't know. Perhaps."_

_"__And if it turns out you don't, you and I could live together."_

_"__You and …" Sheldon looked around at his girlfriend, openly mocking her suggestion. "Oh, sure, and while we're at it, why don't we get engaged, too? Why don't we get a little house, start a family? Enjoy our sunset years together? Do you hear yourself, woman?"_

_"__Sheldon, it was just a thought."_

_"__No, here's a thought." Sheldon placed the almost untouched drink on the coffee table ad rose to his feet. "You're not moving in, Leonard's not moving out, everything stays exactly the way it is. And by the way, I saw you make this Strawberry Quik with syrup, and you're supposed to use the powder!" Sheldon grabbed his windbreaker and messenger bag as he headed toward the front door._

_"__It tastes the same."_

_"__No! The syrup tastes better, and I don't like it." With those final words, Sheldon yanked the door open and walked out, slamming it loudly behind him._

"And that was the last time I saw her in person…We've only Skyped or messaged each other since then."

"You were kinda harsh with her that night, Sheldon. I can understand why you'd feel a little hesitant about seeing her again; how long's it been?"

"Just over a month, forty five days today."

"Wow…" Emily breathed out, and glanced over at her nervous passenger. "Still, it's a very romantic thing you're doing tonight Sheldon, and very brave too."

"Yeah, well…I thought I was being brave taking that train ride alone, but I didn't make one night before I was calling her." Sheldon murmured, looking out of his window at the passing scenery.

"Was she very angry with you for taking off the way you did?"

"She said she understood, but at the time I didn't really understand it myself; I just knew it was something I had to do."

"Why?"  
>"I was just overwhelmed, Emily; I need a very structured life in order to function…when I lost that structure it just became too much for me to deal with, and so I basically ran away." Sheldon's voice trailed off as he remembered looking up from his seat in the railway station to find that Leonard had tracked him down…<p>

_"__Sheldon."_

_"__You tracked my phone?" Sheldon sighed in disappointment, he had hoped to make a swift exit without any fuss or drama; from the look on Leonard's face that was just a pipe dream now._

_"__Yeah."_

_"__Boy, you chase one balloon for three miles." Sheldon said in a brief attempt at failed levity._

_"__We were worried about you." Penny stated as she stood by Leonard's side._

_"__Don't be melodramatic. I'm just getting on a train and leaving forever." Sheldon glanced over at his friends briefly before turning around on his seat and staring forward._

_"__Seriously? You don't even have a change of clothes or a toothbrush."_

_"__My plan is to stop at malls and buy what I need. It's called living off the land."_

_"__Okay, I know you're upset and there's a lot of stuff going on, but it's nothing we can't work out. Come on, let's get you home."_

_"__No, I've reached my breaking point. I need to leave. Now."_

_"__And go where?" Penny asked, folding her arms across her chest._

_"__It doesn't matter."_

_"__So a few things don't go your way and your best decision is to ride the rails like a hobo?" Leonard sat down next to Sheldon on the wooden bench and tried to talk some sense into his friend._

_"__I suppose it is. Except I have a credit card. And I refuse to carry my laptop at the end of a stick." Penny smiled at Sheldon's turn of phrase and Leonard shot her a look as if to tell her that she wasn't helping. "And I'd sooner die than eat beans out of a can."_

_"__Come on, come home with us and tomorrow I'll take you to Lego Land."_

_"__Lego Land is not the solution to everything. And it's too much of a scene since that movie came out."_

_"__Then what can I do?" Leonard asked quietly, and Sheldon looked distraught as he turned to face his roommate._

_"__Leonard, I am overwhelmed. Everything is changing and it's simply too much. I need to get away and think."_

_"__Oh, come on, you know you're overreacting."_

_"__Leonard, hang on. Just come here. Maybe we need to let him go."_

_"__What? Why?"_

_"__It might be good for him."_

_"__You know he can't take a trip like that by himself."_

_"__He's a grown man."_

_"__No, he looks like a man. You've seen Freaky Friday, sometimes little kids end up in big persons bodies."_

_"__Leonard, we can't protect him forever."_

_"__I know, but…"_

_"__He'll be okay. You taught him well, Padawan."_

_"__Good Lord, Padawan's the student, not the teacher." Sheldon called out, having overheard their whispered conversation._

_"__Seriously, let him go." Penny tugged on Leonard's sleeve and he turned to talk to Sheldon._

_"__Sheldon, if you really need to do this, I'm not going to stand in your way."_

_"__I do." Sheldon nodded solemnly, his mind completely set on his chosen path._

_"__Okay. Good luck." Leonard finally accepted his decision with a nod of his own, and Penny walked behind Sheldon to hug his neck._

_"__Be safe and call us." She dropped a kiss on his hair and then quickly walked away, linking her arm through Leonards. _

_"__I will."_

_"__Bye, buddy. Sheldon?"_

_"__Yes?"_

_"__I'm gonna miss you."_

"Sheldon? Sheldon?" Emily's repeated calling of his name had Sheldon blinking as he turned to face her.

"Hmm?"

"We're here."

"Oh boy." Sheldon took a deep breath and opened the passenger door, ready to face his destiny and accept anything that came his way.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: So we've reached the end of our recaps, everything from here on out is strictly head canon…**

Amy had just finished her dinner of chicken salad when her laptop chimed with an incoming Skype call, she walked over to see Sheldon's icon flashing on her screen. She accepted the call and soon Sheldon's face filled her screen.

"Sheldon!" Amy beamed happily and waved at her boyfriend. "Where are you?"  
>"Not too far away now, I've just found a quiet spot to give you a call before I board the train for the last leg of my journey home." Sheldon's face blurred a little on the screen and he moved back a little until it was clear again. Amy could see that he was sitting on a wooden bench in front of some fairly bland walls.<p>

"I can't wait to see you!"

"Me too…now what's all this about sharing my spot with Leonard last night?" Sheldon gave Amy a mock frown and then spoilt it by flashing his phone at the web cam so that she could see the photo that Penny had sent him.

"Ooh, I hadn't realised he was so close, I wondered why I started sneezing this morning, it must have been a reaction to his cheap cologne…" Amy grinned at her camera and Sheldon nodded in agreement.

"I frequently have the same reaction." Sheldon looked down at his watch and then back up at the camera. "I need to board my train in a few minutes, but I'll see you very soon."

"Okay, will you call me when you get in? I want to be the one to pick you up from the station." Amy kissed her fingers and pressed them to the screen. Sheldon reached up to his own screen and touched it lightly.

"I can't tell you how much I want to be with you right now, I'm so sorry for all of the cruel things that I said to you on our last night together…" Sheldon's eyes glistened with the shimmer of unshed tears and Amy hushed him.

"Sheldon, it's all forgotten now…we've talked it all out already and there's nothing to forgive. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard, I knew that you were struggling with everything else in your life…"

"Amy, there's so much that I want to say to you…but I'm going to wait until I can speak to you in person. I have to go now but I'll see you really soon…"

"Yeah, see you soon." Amy waved at Sheldon who gave her a wave in return and just as he was about to disconnect the call he said something that had her looking at him in surprise.

"Check your e-mail."

"What?"

"Just do it, I have to go…miss you."

"Miss you too." Amy blew a kiss at the screen and then it went dark as Sheldon went off line. Amy clicked on her mail icon and saw an e-mail from Sheldon in her inbox.

_Amy, I can't wait to sit next to you in our spot on my couch. I haven't seen you in person for over a month, and that's simply too long. I have so much that I want to say to you that I haven't been able to before; going on this trip has made me realise how important you are to me and this is a little something to show you how much I…and the rest of our gang really care about you. Love always, Sheldon xx_

Amy scrolled down to see a link at the bottom of the e-mail that was flashing 'play me'. She clicked on the link and there was a moment of freeze frame before she saw the whole gang in Sheldon's apartment waving at the camera. Howard was seated on a stool in front of an electric keyboard and looked directly into the camera which fed into a laptop feed.

"Hi Amy!" He smiled into the camera and the whole gang waved. "Sheldon asked us to put this little video together to show you how much he misses you and wishes he was there to tell you in person."

"We love you Ames!" Penny and Bernadette yelled out from where they were standing just behind Howard, holding a sheet of paper each. Howard flexed his fingers a little and nodded over at Leonard who had his cello standing in front of him. Leonard drew back his bow as Howard played the opening bars to a very familiar song; soon the melodious voices of Penny, Bernadette, Raj and Howard filled the room.

_"__Hello again, hello  
>Just called to say hello<br>I couldn't sleep at all tonight  
>And I know it's late<br>But I couldn't wait_

_Hello, my friend, hello  
>Just called to let you know<br>I think about you ev'ry night  
>When I'm here alone<br>And you're there at home, hello_

_Maybe it's been crazy  
>And maybe I'm to blame<br>But I put my heart above my head_  
><em>We've been through it all<br>And you loved me just the same  
>And when you're not there<br>I just need to hear.."_

Suddenly the singing stopped mid lyrics and Howard looked directly at the camera. "Amy, can you hear me?"

"Howard? How?"

"Live Skype feed disguised as a video link, quite ingenious really; it was Sheldon's idea."

"Howie, enough of the technical blabber, get on with it." Bernadette poked Howard in the arm and then grinned at the camera. "Hi Ames!"

"Hello, Bernadette…what's going on? What is all of this?" Amy was a little confused, everyone continued grinning madly in the camera and she noticed Raj wiping a tear from his eye. Leonard set his cello to one side and got closer to the webcam.

"Amy…open your door."

"Sorry?"

"Open your door, sweetie…" Penny smiled softly into the camera as a series of very familiar knocks could clearly be heard through the speakers.

"Oh my God! Really?" Amy squealed in delight and nearly tripped over her own feet in her mad dash to get to the front door. She pulled it open to see something that she never expected… Sheldon's Mobile Virtual Presence Device in the hallway outside her apartment. The webcam light was flashing red, indicating that it was still receiving a live broadcast and she could see Sheldon's face filling the flat panel display.

"SHELDON!" Penny's sudden yell from the tiny speakers on Amy's laptop had her turning around to see her bestie screaming into the camera. As Amy turned back to the door she saw the MVPD moving down the corridor and a tall, lean figure taking it's place.

_"__Hello, my friend, hello  
>It's good to need you so<br>It's good to love you like I do  
>And to feel this way<br>When I hear you say, hello_

_Hello, my friend, hello  
>Just called to let you know<br>I think about you ev'ry night  
>And I know it's late<br>But I couldn't wait  
>Hello…<em>

Hello, Amy" Sheldon reached over with one slender finger and wiped away the lone tear that was tracking it's way down Amy's cheek.

"Are you really here?"

"I really am…I couldn't stay away any longer. Nice surprise?"

"The best." Amy couldn't stop her tears from falling any longer and threw herself into Sheldon's arms, feeling his arms wrap around her waist and drawing her in closer. Amy buried her face against his neck and Sheldon felt her tears soaking into the collar of his shirt.

"Ssh…I'm here, I'm not going anywhere else in a long, long time." Sheldon murmured quietly in her ear as he gently stroked the smooth waterfall of Amy's hair. Amy merely gripped him tighter as she continued to sob. Sheldon moved them further into her apartment and saw Emily taking control of the MVPD, moving back down toward the elevator. He mouthed a 'thank you' and she smiled in response. "Amy, I'm going to let you go for just a minute so that I can close the door." Sheldon prised Amy's fingers away from his shirt and led her over to the couch before walking back over and softly closing her apartment door. He sat down next to her on the couch and Amy immediately snuggled into his side, wrapping her arm around his waist. Sheldon leant back against the cushions and sighed happily. "I've missed this, the peace and quiet…but most of all you."

"Aw…Shelly, that's so sweet!" Penny's cooing voice coming from the laptop had Sheldon remembering that their reunion had been witness by their whole group and strangely enough he didn't mind at all.

"Thanks guys, I couldn't have pulled it off without your help." Sheldon offered his sincere thanks to all of their friends and Leonard smiled into the camera.

"No problem, buddy. Give me a call when you want picking up and one of us will be over to collect you."

"I'll bring him back when I'm done with him." Amy said as she wiped her eyes and composed herself a little.

"Oohhh!" Bernadette and Howard cooed, giving each other a little nudge and winking into the camera. Amy chuckled and leant closer to her own webcam.

"A lady never kisses and tells." She whispered as she clicked the little icon at the top of the screen to disconnect the live feed, cutting off the squeals and giggles coming from across town. She turned slightly on the couch and crooked her finger at Sheldon.

"Yes, m'lady?"

"How about a 'proper' hello?" She murmured with a smile and Sheldon grinned as he leant closer until their mouths brushed in a fleeting, yet soft kiss. "Mmm…not quite…" She whispered and felt Sheldon smile against her lips. He teased her with another soft brush of his lips before putting her out of her misery and kissing her firmly, parting her lips to glide his tongue over her own. "Much better." Amy gasped as she tore her mouth away in a desperate need for oxygen.

"Yeah…much." Sheldon agreed as he dived in for another taste of her sweet lips, wrapping his arms firmly around her waist to prevent her from moving too far away from him. Several long minutes later they came up for air, both extremely dishevelled and with rumpled clothing. "Hello." Sheldon said again quietly, taking a minute to just sit and admire his girlfriend.

"Hi." Amy replied with a soft smile, she reached up to brush his hair back into place from where she had run her fingers through his slightly overgrown locks. "I still can't quite believe you're really here…I feel like I am only dreaming and will wake up any minute to find that I'm all alone again."

"Amy…even if I were still on that stupid train you would never really be alone…I know I was never really alone because I carried you with me all the time." Sheldon captured Amy's hand and pressed it against his chest. "Right here."

"Sheldon…" Amy's emerald eyes glinted again with the threat of more tears, her emotions too raw to keep hidden any longer.

"I love you, Amy…I should have told you a long time ago, but I was too much of a coward to say anything."

"Oh Sheldon! I love you, too…" Amy leant forward to rest her head against Sheldon's chest and felt him let out a huge sigh of relief.

"You don't know how happy I am to hear that, darlin'…I was getting myself into a bit of a state getting ready for your surprise, it's been so long since we actually saw each other."

"But we talked nearly every day!"

"I know, but it's not the same." Sheldon started stroking Amy's hair again, trailing his fingers through the silken strands. "I know that I may not have won any awards for being the best boyfriend lately, but I want to make it up to you. I promise that I will do everything in my power to make you happy, if you will only give me the chance to prove how much you mean to me."

"Sheldon, you don't have to prove anything to me." Amy leant back slightly so that she could see his face. "Quirks and all, remember? The fact that you did all of this for me tonight means more to me than any empty gesture that Leonard or Howard may have come up with. I don't want meaningless flowers or candy…I love you just the way you are." Sheldon gave Amy another heated kiss for those words alone and when he finally raised his head they were nearly lying flat on the cushions.

"Well, this wasn't really the kind of homecoming I was expecting." Sheldon remarked slowly as he shifted on the cushions so that they were cuddled next to each other with their heads resting on the arm of the couch. "Not that I'm complaining, but I didn't want us to rush into anything without talking about the future first."

"What did you have in mind?" Amy asked, running her hand along Sheldon's forearm where his shirt sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows.

"Oh…I don't know…maybe starting off slowly by moving in together – roommates only at first, obviously." Sheldon mused quietly, nuzzling his chin into Amy's shoulder and

"Go on." Amy encouraged him to continue, keeping up her soft movements along his arm.

"Well, after a couple of tortuous nights being separated by only a thin wall, I would probably be on my knees begging you to let me cuddle up to you in bed…"

"Really? A couple of nights?" Amy grinned and turned her head to look over at Sheldon's thoughtful expression.

"Alright then, so maybe it would be after the first night."

"That's more like it…please continue."

"So, after the first night we'd be sharing a room; splitting the rent and utilities until we decide a few months later…alright, weeks later, that we would get engaged, then we'd start looking for a house with a neat little picket fence around the back garden just right to frame the cute little swing set that our three kids will love to play on…Amy, are you still awake? You haven't said much…am I going too fast? I am, aren't I? God, I am so stupid!" Sheldon stopped speaking about his vision for the future when he realised that Amy had fallen completely silent. "Amy, please say something!"

"Sorry, I got a little lost in there for a second…did you say 'engaged'?"

"Yeah…too soon? Maybe the kids were a little too much…"

"Sheldon…I don't know what to say, I never thought that we'd even be having this conversation; it's a little much to take in." Amy's fingers had stilled on Sheldon's arm and he moved slightly so that he could twine their fingers together.

"I don't want you to make any decisions now, that's why I said it was all just a 'maybe' suggestion. I do want you to move in with me one day, Amy…but I want it to be because we are both heading for the same goal."

"So, ask me then." Amy placed her other hand over the top of their entwined fingers and felt Sheldon's frame tighten with sudden tension.

"Amy Farrah Fowler, would you consider doing me the honour of becoming my new roommate?"

"YES!" Amy yelled as she twisted around to press a string of kisses all over Sheldon's face. "I would love to move in with you Sheldon, Leonard's room, your room, the couch – I don't care…just as long as I get to see your face every morning for breakfast and the last thing before I go to bed at night."

"Really, you will?" Sheldon sounded so surprised that Amy couldn't help but laugh a little at his doubt filled eyes.

"Of course I will. Sheldon, I love you and you've just made one of my dreams a reality."

"One of your dreams?" Sheldon asked as his face softened into a warm smile, the special one reserved especially for her. Amy snuggled back against his warm and pulled his arms tighter around her waist, resting their clasped hands over her stomach.

"Hmm…cosy little cottage, white picket fence, a little boy with hair the colour of a mink's fur and eyes of sapphire playing in the sandpit in the back yard and a little baby girl sleeping on her daddy's chest as he sings the elements song softly."

"Mmm, I like that one." Sheldon sighed as he nuzzled the soft skin at the side of Amy's neck, pressing a tender kiss where her hair had fallen to one side. His hand slid out from her gentle hold to stroke over the place where their imaginary children might someday grow and Amy's eyes looked up to see a melting expression softening his cerulean gaze to the soft blue of a summer sky. "The baby has eyes like dazzling emeralds and her hair curls just like her mother's before she tames it into submission; she's about five months old and her parents are already thinking about adding a third member to their family. The man can't quite believe how much he loves being a daddy and he's certain he loves his little family even more than his dreams of winning a Nobel."

"Oh they have those as well, they've been working closely together since before they were married…their minds are so closely linked they are almost the same person. Since marrying they've won a Prize every year…one for her, one for him and a third they share together."

"Hmm…lovely, where do they work?"

"At home…they both concentrate so much better without the constant distraction of the University environment around them. Their children are around them all the time and since the little boy was born none of them have spent a night apart – even when the new baby came along she came out of the hospital the same day and they have grown together ever since." Amy's voice grew quiet as she drifted slowly into her dream world; she could almost hear the little boy's breathy laugh that was so much like his daddy's, and the way the little girl's skin gave off the delicate blend of baby powder and formula. Sheldon curved his hand around the flat planes of Amy's abdomen as he too drifted off into Amy's dream; only he dreamt of falling asleep next to his green eyed vixen with the soft weight of a tiny baby on his chest; both of them had smiles on their faces as they drifted off to sleep together, hands tightly clasped over Amy's stomach with their heads resting on the same couch cushion.

More than a few hours later a worried Leonard and Penny tapped on Amy's apartment door and when no one answered they debated whether to let themselves in with the spare key that Amy had given Penny for emergency use.

"Penny, we can't just go barging in there unannounced. It's nearly midnight, what if they're you know…?" Leonard looked uncomfortable at the thought of interrupting a potential intimate moment between the couple and Penny just gave him a look that said 'no way, Jose' before inserting the key in the lock and pushing open the front door. She paused in the living room and looked over at the entwined figures on the couch.

"Leonard….look, isn't it beautiful?" Penny waved at Leonard to come inside and he noticed that his fiancée had tears in her eyes as she grabbed his hand to pull him closer. He looked over the back of the couch and saw Sheldon holding Amy tenderly in his arms, both of their hands were still clasped over her tummy and he could hear Sheldon murmuring something under his breath. Leonard smiled faintly as he leant a little closer to hear what Sheldon was saying. "What?" Penny whispered and Leonard patted her hand as he walked around to the front of the couch to sit on the rug near Sheldon's feet. Penny walked around with him and they both leant back against the front of the couch quietly listening to Sheldon's nocturnal rumblings.

"_Alright little man, open up for Daddy…that's it, mmm…yummy carrots…Oh, here comes the potatoes…open the tunnel for the choo-choo…that's a good boy, Daddy loves his little man, yes he does…"_ Sheldon had a soft smile even as he slept and he hummed happily under his breath.

"Oh…Sheldon's dreaming about being a Daddy!" Penny whispered in surprise and held her fingers over her mouth. "I always thought he would dream about sciency things or winning that Nobel…"

"Sshh…" Leonard hushed her as Sheldon started to murmur something else in his sleep.

"_Soft kitty, warm kitty little ball of fur…I know darlin'…those teeth have gotta be hurtin' you something fierce…happy kitty…uh-huh princess, don't be biting on Daddy's finger like that_…"

"Sounds like he's got one of each…" Leonard whispered to Penny who was leaning against his shoulder smiling softly.

"Ooh, look Amy's starting now…I wonder what she's thinking about?" Penny murmured against Leonard's ear and they both shuffled closer to the head of the couch as Amy's murmurs were quieter than Sheldon's.

"_Don't spoil her, Tex…she doesn't need to be picked up every time she cries…don't look at me with those baby blues, I know her teeth are hurting but the medicine will kick in soon and we have to work sometimes…okay, just a little snuggle under the quilt until she drops off…now we don't need to get Adam as well…_" Amy snuggled closer to Sheldon and Penny saw him pull her closer against his chest as they continued to sleep.

"Oh my God! Do you think they're sharing the same dream? Sheldon was obviously singing Soft Kitty and he mentioned something about his Princess having sore teeth and then Amy started talking about a crying baby…" Penny bounced up and down with excitement and let out a little squeal. She clapped her hand over her mouth as Sheldon frowned in his sleep.

"_Darlin'…I though you said Auntie Penny wasn't coming over today? Wasn't she taking Adam and Leia to the park tomorrow?_" Sheldon muttered and twitched lightly in his sleep, he settled down as Amy stroked his arm gently.

"_Hmm…tomorrow…we get a lie in and then we have to present our paper to the University at one_…"

"_Like the sound of that…maybe we can get a little practise in first thing_."

"_Tex, after two babies I don't think we need more practise_…"

"_Mmm…another little girl with her Mama's eyes…"_

"_No, a boy with his Daddy's smile…Adam needs a playmate. Leia has her Auntie Penny wrapped around her little finger so Adam needs a little brother_."

"Ooh, I'm so gonna be there for that!" Squealed Penny, and was immediately hushed by Leonard who saw that Sheldon's face was beginning to scrunch up as her voice began to pierce through his veil of dreams.

"Hush up, Penny. I'm just gonna leave a note for Sheldon telling him that we called over but didn't want to disturb them." Leonard grabbed a pen and scribbled a quick note, leaving it on the coffee table in front of the sleeping couple. "Could you grab Amy's glasses? I'll get their shoes…" Penny nodded and carefully removed Amy's glasses from her nose and folded them up before placing them on top of the note. Leonard quickly slipped off Sheldon's sneakers and then Amy's sensible flats; almost as soon as he'd done so both Amy and Sheldon curled their feet around each other as if they sensed the feeling of comfort and instinctively moved closer to the source.

"What about a change of clothes? Sheldon will hate having to wear the same stuff two days in a row…"

"Could you stop talking now, please? I'm trying to enjoy myself here and it's very hard to do with an audience." Sheldon's voice rumbled out from the couch, husky with sleep and Leonard glanced over with surprise.

"Sheldon, how long have you been awake?"

"Since you tickled my foot when you took my shoes off; you know my feet are very sensitive." Sheldon murmured and snuggled further into the curve of Amy's spine.

"Sheldon, you're tuckered out, why don't you just go on to bed?" Penny saw the lines of tiredness etched around Sheldon's narrow face and reached over to smooth his hair back from his high forehead.

"Uh-huh…once you've gone, I don't want to disturb Amy right now…" Sheldon murmured sleepily as he heard Amy's slight whimper in her sleep and tightened his grip around her waist and dropped a kiss against her hair. She immediately quietened down and sank back into slumber.

"Okay, buddy…what about clothes though? Do you want me to drop off a bag in the morning?" Leonard rose to his feet and motioned for Penny to join him at the front door, she took one more look at the entwined couple on the couch and then reluctantly took Leonard's hand.

"No…I've got an emergency kit in Amy's room left over from where we had an evacuation drill a few months ago."

"Earthquake, power outage, viral plague?"

"Zombies actually, Amy was concerned about whether events of The Walking Dead could theoretically be possible so we had a weekend of running emergency drills…just to ease her mind." Sheldon yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes where they felt dry and gritty. Leonard opened Amy's front door and nudged Penny out into the hallway.

"We'll leave you two to get some rest now, see you tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh…" Sheldon waved tiredly and blinked slowly, trying to stay awake. Leonard grinned as he gently closed the door behind him, hearing the lock snick into place. Inside the apartment, Sheldon looked down at his sleeping girlfriend and smiled gently. He extracted himself from his place behind Amy and murmured softly as she grumbled in her sleep.

"Ssh, darlin'…come on let's go to bed." Sheldon bent down and carefully lifted Amy into his arms, tucking one arm under her knees and placing Amy's arm around his neck. Although he appeared to be lean and slightly on the scrawny side, Sheldon had hidden muscles beneath his long t-shirts – he just didn't feel the need to use them for unnecessary manual labour. He barely even registered Amy's weight in his arms as he carried her from the living room and deposited her gently on the left side of her waterbed. Deciding not to bother getting changed, Sheldon climbed onto the other side and pulled her coverlet over them both and was soon joining her in peaceful slumber.


	15. Epilogue

Three years later and the reality of their life together had changed slightly from their vision of the future. Sheldon and Amy had moved in together a few short weeks after his return home and life for both of them had never been better. Within six months the couple had married and Amy was expecting their first child.

Their vision of receiving a joint Nobel Prize became a reality a few weeks shy of their first anniversary of living together. Sheldon had journeyed to Switzerland with Leonard at his side, Amy was nearing her sixth month of pregnancy and had elected not to travel. She and Penny sat in the theatre room at Caltech surrounded by their friends and cried when Sheldon accepted the award for both of them, and said that none of it would have been possible without the love of his wife.

Their dreams of a little boy with emerald green eyes changed slightly as Amy delivered a set of twins, a boy and girl delivered three weeks early. Sheldon was desperate to call them Luke and Leia but Amy insisted in keeping Adam for the tiny little boy. Sheldon was a devoted Daddy, often beating Amy to the matching cribs and hardly letting anyone else have a turn at cuddling his children. He loved both of his children desperately but if pressed would later say that his daughter held a special place in his heart; Adam was the spitting image of his father, lean and pale with eyes that were just a shade lighter than Sheldon's own. Leia on the other hand was the perfect replica of Amy, hair that lightly curled over her forehead and eyes that sparkled like emeralds. She knew that she could twist her father around her little finger and Sheldon loved her desperately.

Three years after their marriage, Amy was pregnant again and they realised that their two bedroom apartment in Pasadena was in danger of bursting at the seams. With the prize money from their joint Nobel accumulating interest in their savings account their vision of a cosy little cottage on the outskirts of Pasadena turned into a five bedroom white Colonial up in the hills. Sheldon had a downstairs theatre/games room to share with the guys and a large room over the double garage where he had a separate office and plentiful display cases for his ever expanding comic-book and superhero collection. Sheldon had just received word that his latest paper had attracted a lot of interest within the physics world and there were rumours that he was in the line up to receive a nomination for a second Nobel Prize. The familiar white envelope with the gold crest landed on their doorstep one Saturday morning just as the small family were sitting down to breakfast.

"Mail time, Daddy!" Adam chortled from his highchair and reached out with banana encrusted fingers to try and take the envelope from Sheldon's hands.

"Adam, let Daddy open his letter…finish your banana, baby and then we'll get you ready for a day with Auntie Penny."

"Yummy Penny!" Squealed Leia excitedly wrapping her hands around her sippy cup and swallowing the last of her milk. "Done, Mama!" Amy wiped the twin's face and hands clean and then went to lift them out of the highchairs. Sheldon gently nudged her out of the way and lifted the children safely out to set them on their feet.

"No heavy lifting, Doctor Cooper!" He chided gently and rubbed his hand over the slight swelling in her abdomen. Amy was just nearing the end of her first trimester and only she and Sheldon were aware that she was expecting again. Amy reached down to entwine her fingers with her husband's and he pulled her onto his lap as they watched the twins bicker between themselves over who got to read 'Uncle Stephen's' book first. Although their speech patterns were still that of a two year old, both children were tiny genius's; their reading and writing levels were far above those of an average child of their age but Sheldon and Amy were not comfortable with the idea of exploiting their offspring by having them attend school at such a young age.

They split childcare equally between them, both Amy and Sheldon had left the mainstream University environment when they were working on their joint projects, choosing to work from home. President Siebert had almost cried when he realised that Sheldon would no longer be working out of the University; but they were tears of joy rather than sadness and even Leonard admitted that things were a little less exciting since Sheldon had stopped leaving suggestion letters in the faculty member's in trays.

Both Adam and Leia knew not to disturb Daddy when he was in his 'quiet' room; but most of the time Sheldon opted to work in the large open plan office that he shared with Amy at the back of the house. The previous owners had used it as a sun room, Amy loved it because it opened directly out onto a small enclosed area of grass. Sheldon had installed a sand pit in the enclosure and replaced the existing fence with a white picket fence, just like he had seen in his dreams. There was a large playpen in the corner of the office for naptime but most of the time the children slept draped over Sheldon's chest as he relaxed on the soft, brown leather couch that Leonard had gifted them when they moved out of Los Robles. It was an almost perfect replica of their original couch only it had reclining seats at both end of the couch. Sheldon loved it so much that he purchased another two, one in a dark ruby red for the theatre room and another in soft buttery cream for the living room – no matter on which couch he sat on, it was always in exactly the same spot.

"What was in the mail today, Doctor Cooper? Anything interesting?" Amy nestled against Sheldon's chest as their hands rubbed over the future baby Cooper.

"Hmm?" Sheldon murmured distractedly, his eyes following his children in their play. "Oh, um…just this." He flicked the corner of the unopened letter with his thumbnail and Amy just noticed the insignia on the front of the envelope.

"Sheldon…is that what I think it is?" Amy gasped and then twisted around to face her husband "Sweetheart, why haven't you opened it?"

"I don't really need to…everything I ever wanted is right here in this room." He said simply, lowering his head to press a soft kiss against his wife's lips. Both children looked up from their book and giggled. Amy broke off the kiss and grinned at her children, before tugging Sheldon to his feet.

"Munchkins, Daddy has received a very special letter in the mail today, only he's a little bit nervous about opening it. Shall we go and get comfortable on the couch and then maybe one of you could help Daddy read his letter?"

"Yay!" Adam and Leia scampered into the living room and Amy plucked the letter out of Sheldon's grasp and nodded her head in the direction of the couch. "Go on, Tex…you know if you don't get in there they'll have your DVDs all over the floor and you'll end up arguing over which is the best Star Wars movie again with Adam."

"Come with me?" Sheldon held out his hand and Amy grasped it gently within her own small hand.

"Always." They walked hand in hand down the short corridor into the bright and airy living room. Both children were waiting patiently on the couch, sitting in the middle cushion leaving the two ends for their parents.

"Letter, Mama!" Adam demanded imperiously as he held out his hand and Amy passed the envelope across. Leia helped her brother carefully open the envelope and they began to slowly read.

_Doctor Sheldon Cooper _– "That's Daddy's name," Leia said as she traced one slim digit over the name, "I don't know how to pronounce what it says next…"

"Don't worry about those, baby…keep reading." Amy said with a smile, looking over her daughter's shoulder to see that she was confused with all of the letters after Sheldon's name.

"_It is with great pleasure that we inform you that your works 'Unravelling String Theory' has been selected for this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. _

_We offer our sincere congratulations on behalf of the whole Academy and will be sending further details regarding the ceremony shortly. Very best wishes…"_

"You did it, Sheldon…you really did it!" Amy launched herself into Sheldon's arms and peppered his face with kisses, Adam and Leia quickly joined in and tumbled onto Sheldon's lap eager to join in the fun. The four of them were cheering so loudly that they didn't even hear Leonard and Penny let themselves in the front door until they heard Leonard's rumbling laughter from the doorway.

"Hey, what's all this? You know you aren't allowed to have fun without us!"

"Uncle Leonard!" Adam raced across the living room and wrapped his arms around Leonard's legs until he bent down to pick him up.

"Hey He-Man, what's up in the Cooper household today?" Leonard rubbed noses with his Godson and Adam giggled.

"Lee-Lee, how's my little girl today?" Penny cooed at her favourite (and only Goddaughter) and soon Leia was snuggle into Penny's arms breathing in the sweet scent of Penny's perfume.

"Mmm, you smell yummy Pen-Pen."

"Thank you, sweetie." Penny nuzzled Leia's chin and wrinkled her nose up. "You smell like mashed bananas…did you get much in your mouth today?" Leia giggled and started to wriggle in Penny's arms, wanting to get down. She ran over to Sheldon and he picked her up, setting her in his lap where she played with the edge of his t-shirt sleeve.

"Daddy got a very important letter today, he was scared to open it so Mama had me and LeeLee open it for him." Adam explained to Leonard, still happily sitting in Leonard's arms.

"Oh yeah? What did it say, He-Man?" Leonard asked, tickling Adam's ribs where his t-shirt had risen up to expose his slender tummy.

"Uncle Leonard!" Adam giggled as he tried to keep a serious expression on his face. "Stop!"

"Sorry…but not sorry!" Leonard stopped tickling the small boy for a second and then resumed his attack. "Okay, I'm done now. So, tell me what this very important letter said, He-Man."

"Daddy's got a special prize…just like the one he got with Mama."

"What? Sheldon, is this true?" Leonard swung around to face his best friend and saw the truth in Sheldon's beaming expression. "I didn't even know you had been nominated this year, I knew there was interest in your paper but you didn't say anything."

"I didn't know…I don't remember getting a letter in the summer but it could have been lost in the move. Do you fancy another trip to Switzerland with me?"

"Don't you want to take Amy? She did miss out last time due to the munchkins being on their way…" Leonard looked over at the way Amy was sitting on the couch and when she smiled softly at him and started stroking her tummy, he knew exactly why she wouldn't be travelling to Switzerland again. "Oh…I'm so pleased for you both."

"Huh?" Penny was lost in the silent conversation between her three friends and looked from Leonard's sappy smile to Amy's serene expression still unable to follow along.

"We're going to have another baby Cooper on our hands very soon. You're going to be an Auntie again, Penny." Leonard stated quietly as he gently rocked Adam in his arms.

"Oh…Ames!" Penny rushed over to fling her arms around her best friend and then glanced over at Sheldon. "Come on, Moonpie get in here!" Sheldon frowned at her nickname and then shrugged it off as he allowed himself to be pulled into a Penny hug. "When are you due?"

"Mid-October. The baby will be too young to be left when the ceremony takes place in November and I don't want to travel with it either…besides I can't leave my other two munchkins for that length of time."

"It's only a few days, Amy…you know I'd love to have them."

"Thanks Penny, but we haven't been apart since they were born…one day perhaps when they are a little older I might let you have a sleep over with them, but I think Sheldon might miss them even more than I."

"Oh drats, I didn't think of that…I wonder if Leonard would be able to accept the award on my behalf? Perhaps he could take Wolowitz or Koothrappali with him?"

"Sheldon, you have to go. It's an amazing achievement and you need to be there to accept your dues. It's been a long time coming and you deserve it." Leonard was thrilled that Sheldon would want him to be the one to accept the award for him, but he still felt that Sheldon ought to be the one up on that stage.

"But who will sing Leia the elements song if she can't sleep? Adam likes to hold my hand as he goes off and then there will be the new baby…what if he or she doesn't know who I am? No, I can't go and Leonard will simply have to go in my place." Sheldon was stroking Leia's hair as he spoke and he unconsciously started to nestle her closer.

"Mmm Daddy, you always smell good." Leia said with a tiny yawn as she moved further up in Sheldon's lap until her head was buried in his neck and her small legs were wrapped around his torso.

"Thanks, baby." Sheldon murmured as he felt Leia's body slump heavily on his chest, indicating that she had fallen back to sleep. "Leonard, I will contact the committee and let them know that you will be accepting the award in my stead…I won't leave my family, not even for them. It's just another award and as I was telling Amy earlier, I have everything I've ever needed right here in this room with me."

"Aw, Shelly." Penny sniffed and rubbed Sheldon's arm; everyone knew how much Sheldon was a changed man since marrying Amy and leaving the academic life to raise a family with her but it was an unspoken devotion that had remained silent until now.

"I count you and Leonard as part of my family, Penny and I know that should anything happen to either Amy or myself, I couldn't ask for a nicer pair of people to continue raising my children. With that in mind, we'd like you to act as Godparents for our latest addition."

"Of course, we'd be happy to, wouldn't we Penny?" Leonard crossed over to the armchair with a sleeping Adam in his arms and carefully sat down without disturbing the sleeping toddler.

"Definitely, we were actually thinking of looking for a place out here ourselves…we've been married a couple of years now and it's time we moved into a grown up house."

"I'd love that bestie…" Amy grinned over at Penny and the two women giggled together. "It's not been the same since we left Los Robles and I've missed you popping over for a cup of milk in the mornings."

"The house at the back of us has just come back on the market…it's a little smaller than this one, but it's very nice inside. Amy and I took a look when we first looked at this area." Sheldon remarked and pointed over at a small wooden bureau in the corner of the room. "If you take a look in the third drawer down, the paperwork should still be in there." Penny walked over to the drawer indicated and pulled out a bundle of flyers.

"Two twenty two?" She asked and when Sheldon nodded, brought the papers over to Leonard to take a look at. It was a three bedroom house on a corner plot, the rear lawn backed directly onto Amy and Sheldon's side garden. It was a similar style to the Cooper's but just on a smaller scale.

"I remember there was only a single garage with a small apartment above it, but the driveway is large enough to extend either the house or garage at the side. Three beds, two baths, kitchen and living room to the rear with a smaller dining room and study at the front." Sheldon ran through the particulars in his mind and Penny followed his speech with the pictures.

"It's lovely, but I don't know whether we'd be able to afford it." Penny sighed wistfully and Leonard hummed under his breath.

"My mother has offered to pay our deposit but even with our combined salary I don't think we'd be able to get a mortgage large enough to cover the rest."

"Go and arrange a viewing and see how much it is up for…haggle with the bank to get the best rates you can for the mortgage and we'll cover the shortfall." Sheldon said bluntly and Leonard's mouth fell open with shock.

"Sheldon, I can't ask you to do that! We're talking tens of thousands of dollars, I won't let you…"

"Leonard, we're both receiving a very healthy salary from the University even though we choose to work off campus; we received nearly two million dollars for our last award and I've just been given my second…I think we can spare a few thousand dollars to help out our dearest friends."

"Two million dollars! Holy crap on a cracker!" Penny gaped at the sum and stared at her friends. "How come you don't live in a frickin' mansion over in Hollywood?"

"Penny, I have a few years' worth of uncashed paycheques in my bottom desk drawer; neither of us are particularly lavish spenders; we buy what we need and our children will want for nothing, we simply don't feel the need to flaunt our good fortune in the faces of others." Sheldon frowned over at Penny and she remembered a time when she couldn't make her rent payments and how Sheldon had immediately offered her some of his rainy day funds.

"Still, two million dollars and another million to come…That's a whole pile of dough waiting to be spent…you haven't still got it in that Green Lantern figure have you? The cheque, I mean, not the cash."

"It was for a while, but Amy had me deposit in a high interest savings account where it is accumulating a nice percentage of interest should we ever need it."

"Good, you don't want to be silly about these things, Sheldon. You need to make sure that you don't be telling every Tom, Dick or Harry that the two of you are loaded." Penny warned gently and Sheldon shook his head.

"Even my own Mother doesn't know, Amy and I made sure that she and Meemaw were taken care of before we purchased the house; they still think that it was a lucky Lotto ticket that paid off the mortgage. The only other people that know about the real figure of our prize money, apart from the two of you now, is President Siebert. Why do you think he was so happy to let us work from home?" Sheldon winked over at Leonard and nudged Amy's shoulder.

"Oh, he thinks that some of that money might come his way…nice one, buddy!" Leonard grinned over at his friend and realised that Siebert had played directly into Sheldon's hands.

"So, you'll make an appointment for the viewing?" Sheldon asked again and Leonard nodded.

"I'll make the appointment, but if I think they're asking silly money I won't go any further."

"Okay." Sheldon agreed and sat back in his seat. "Since the children are fast asleep and it would be a pity to disturb them, how do you feel about watching a few movies with me instead?"

"Sure, it'll be just like old times. Hey, why don't I call the others and we can have a little double celebration?"

"Oh, I don't think we're having twins this time around Leonard." Sheldon exclaimed and Amy backed him up with a firm shake of her head.

"No, definitely just the one this time."

"I didn't mean the baby…I meant the Nobel!" Leonard grinned at the pair of them as he shook his head. "Honestly, the man gets his first Nobel in physics and he doesn't seem the least bit excited, whack-a-doodle!" He started texting the rest of the gang and within minutes everyone had agreed to meet at Sheldon's.


End file.
